MOSCOW, December 28. /TASS/. Five Russian ski mountaineering athletes were granted permission to compete internationally, including in the 2026 Winter Olympics qualifiers, the International Ski Mountaineering Federation (ISMF) declared in a statement on Saturday.

According to the statement, the licenses authorizing participation internationally under a neutral status were issued to Russia’s Andrey Fyodorov, 35, Nikita Filippov, 22, and Daria Zinchenko, 20. The ISMF had previously issued similar licenses earlier in the year to Pavel Yakimov, 32, and Varvara Prokhorova, 33.

The 2026 Winter Olympic Games will be held in the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo between February 6 and 22, 2026.

IOC sanctions against Russia, Belarus

On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended 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 suggested permitting 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 prohibited from participating in international team events.

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.