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Lavrov says current IOC leaders push global sports into crisis

According to the Russian foreign minister, "efforts to adapt Russian Olympic athletes to the new realities deserve special attention"

MOSCOW, February 26. /TASS/. The current leaders of the International Olympic Committee and athletic federations are plunging the world sports into a crisis, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"Specialists who will dive deeply into this reality, who will develop future ways to lead the international sports movement out of the crisis, which the current heads of sports federations and the International Olympic Committee are plunging it into - these specialists will absolutely be in demand," Lavrov said at a meeting of the supervisory board of Moscow State Institute for International Relations, also known as MGIMO.

According to the minister, "efforts to adapt Russian Olympic athletes to the new realities deserve special attention."

"Through the educational programs of MGIMO, the Olympian Foundation, the Russian Olympic Committee, they are being introduced to non-Western, so to speak, elements of the international sports," he said. "I have absolutely no doubt that understanding what is happening in the world sports, understanding the need to make it truly democratic, depoliticized will open great prospects."

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