MOSCOW, March 21. /TASS/. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has aligned itself with political powers-that-be which order it to isolate Russian sports, the chief of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) said on Thursday.

"Since the very beginning, the IOC obviously decided to side with the political agenda, which actually stands in stark contrast to its mission as it consistently follows political orders from the outside to isolate Russian sports," Pozdnyakov stated on his Telegram channel

"As of today, it [IOC] has gone beyond simply delegating the right to approve Olympic participants’ candidacies from one country to the National Olympic Committee of another country," the ROC chief continued.

"But it is Russia, according to Lausanne [the IOC headquarters], which is engaged in the politicization of sports," Pozdnyakov noted.

"To sum up the IOC statements made over the past two days, there is a sneaking feeling that the leadership of this organization has been engulfed in a deep looking glass, where cause-and-effect relationships are being reversed, black is seen as white, and some kind of parallel universe has become reality," the ROC chief said.

"For the past two years, Lausanne has consistently disavowed and disregarded the Olympic Charter’s fundamental principles, applying illegal and inhumane sanctions and prohibitions regarding Russian and Belarusian athletes, as well as discriminatory approaches based on nationality that contradict the very essence of Olympism and the unconditional right of athletes to participate in competitions on an equal basis," Pozdnyakov stated.

"The IOC has been consistent coming up with fancy new illegal suspension criteria, while [IOC President] Thomas Bach keeps insisting that it is Russia violating the [Olympic] Charter," Pozdnyakov added.

On Tuesday, IOC Director of National Olympic Committees (NOC) Relations and Olympic Solidarity James Macleod told journalists that athletes representing Russia and Belarus would not be allowed to take part in the Parade of Athletes during the opening ceremony at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.

Macleod also stated that a decision on the participation of athletes during the Closing Ceremony of the upcoming Games should be expected at a later date.

The International Olympic Committee Executive Board convened for a meeting at the Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland, on March 19-20 and following its opening day on Tuesday it decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in the Parade of Athletes and also excluded them from the 2024 Olympics overall medal standings.

The IOC, however, ruled that Russian athletes, cleared to participate in the upcoming Olympics, would not be forced to sign documents denouncing their country’s special military operation in Ukraine.

The 2024 Summer Olympic Games will be hosted by the French capital of Paris between July 26 and August 11.

On October 12, 2023, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) until further notice after the Russian organization included the Olympic councils of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions as its members.

The Swiss-based CAS registered on November 6, 2023 an appeal from the ROC against the IOC’s decision on the Russian governing Olympic body’s suspension.

The suspension means that the ROC cannot act as a national Olympic committee or receive financing from the Olympic movement. The IOC however reserved the right to clear Russian athletes to take part in the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 as neutrals. Later, IOC President Thomas Bach said that Russian athletes should have no affiliation with the ROC if they want to compete at the Olympic Games.