MOSCOW, November 16. /TASS/. Russia has never positioned the Friendship Games as an alternative to other competitions, Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin said.

Earlier, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) sent a letter to the National Olympic Committees recommending that they refuse to participate in the Friendship Games. On June 22, IOC head Thomas Bach said that Russia was trying to organize "politicized sports competitions."

"The first global project will be the Games of the Future in Kazan. Kazan will also host the BRICS Games in open format in June, and the last big project in Russia will be the Friendship Games. We do not consider and have never positioned the first, the second or the third event as some kind of alternative to something else," Matytsin said during a Rossiya-24 TV broadcast. "They are independent new projects. They are aimed at creating a competitive environment here that will allow Russian athletes to participate in competitions on an international level, something that has been hindered by some international federations and the International Olympic Committee," the official pointed out.

"But we do not need to prove anything to anyone," the sports minister stressed. "We have set the standards for major projects. Russia has hosted the World Cup in football, athletics and aquatics, two FISU World University Games, the Sochi Olympics. I think everyone understands that Russia is a powerful and very reliable partner in the world of sports, and when we initiate something, we always act not against anyone, but in favor of it. For development," Matytsin emphasized.

Russian President Vladimir Putin decreed to hold the first World Friendship Games in Moscow in September 2024.

In February 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended that international sports federations not allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in international competitions due to the situation in Ukraine. In March 2023, the IOC Executive Board recommended that Russian and Belarusian athletes be allowed to compete but only as neutrals, and, moreover, only those who had not publicly expressed support for the special military operation in Ukraine and were not associated with the armed forces or national security agencies. At the same time, the IOC banned Russia and Belarus from holding international competitions in Olympic sports on the territory of the countries.