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Diplomat slams IOC president for spearheading anti-Russian campaign in sports

According to Maria Zakharova, the West is doing all it can to prevent this scandal from "gaining traction"

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova Vladimir Smirnov/TASS

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova

© Vladimir Smirnov/TASS

MOSCOW, April 11. /TASS/. International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach has become "the conductor" of the anti-Russian campaign in sports, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

"Basically, it’s him who has become the conductor of the entire anti-Russian fuss inside the Olympic establishment," she told Channel One. "In my view, all these statements are a revelation. It’s clear that it requires a public inquiry and a journalistic investigation, as well as a probe within the organization," Zakharova added.

According to the Russian diplomat, the West is doing all it can to prevent this scandal from "gaining traction." "Every party and every country that is a member of the Olympic movement should know who’s inside the organization, created not by him (Bach - TASS) but by his predecessors, conceived thousands of years ago as something to highlight the role of sports for peace," she stressed.

On April 2, Bach’s conversation with Russian pranksters Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexey Stolyarov, aka Vovan and Lexus, was released to the public. The IOC president particularly said that participants in the Russia-hosted World Friendship Games might be barred from the Paris Olympics. Vovan and Lexus claimed to be talking to Bach on behalf of a high-ranking African politician.

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