KAZAN, February 27. /TASS/. The Russian city of Kazan is in talks to host the European Aquatics Championship in 2028, Vladimir Leonov, the sports minister of the Russian republic of Tatarstan, told TASS on Tuesday.
The Russian sports official said he had already discussed this issue with Antonio Jose Silva, the president of European Aquatics (LEN).
"Kazan was set to host the European Aquatics Championship this summer, but it was later relocated to Belgrade," Leonov said. "We have a proposal now to host this tournament in 2028. Another round of talks will be held after the Games of the Future [currently underway in Kazan]."
"We are not ditching this idea, we are in talks and they [LEN] have extended an official letter to us with definite proposals, so we will see how it all turns out," the sports minister of Tatarstan added.
The LEN European Aquatics Championship is held on a biennial basis and includes competitions in swimming (long course/50-meter pool), diving, synchronized swimming, open water swimming and high diving. The 2026 European Aquatics Championship will be hosted by the French capital of Paris.
In a separate interview with TASS on Monday, Leonov disclosed that Kazan was being considered to host the 2031 World Aquatics Championship.
Kazan was set to host the 2025 World Aquatics Championship, but the event was postponed indefinitely due to sanctions regarding Russian sports imposed over the country’s ongoing special military operation in Ukraine.
In February 2023, the world’s governing body of swimming sports, World Aquatics, decided to relocate the 2025 World Aquatics Championships from the Russian city of Kazan to Singapore.
World Aquatics President Husain Al-Musallam was quoted as saying at that time: "With dates to be defined, the 2025 event will be staged in close cooperation with the Singapore Swimming Association and Sport Singapore, a statutory board under the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth."
Prior to World Aquatics ruling in March 2023, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations on February 28, 2022, to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in international tournaments.
IOC sanctions against Russia, Belarus
On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee issued recommendations to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in international tournaments, citing Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine as the reason.
Following the IOC’s recommendations in late February 2022, the majority of global sports federations decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sports tournaments.
In late March, 2023, the IOC recommended to permit individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in international sports tournaments, but only under certain conditions. Specifically, athletes from the two countries should not be "actively supporting" Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and must compete under a neutral status. Russia and Belarus were also banned from participating in international team events.
On July 26, 2023, the IOC extended invitations to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris to 203 National Olympic Committees. Russia and Belarus did not receive invitations. The IOC explained later that there was no deadline regarding the issue of Russian and Belarusian athletes’ participation.