MOSCOW, February 6. /TASS/. The attitude exhibited toward Russian correspondents working at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris showed the Russophobic colors of the organizers, Russian hockey legend and member of the IIHF Council Pavel Bure told TASS on Thursday.
The 2024-Paris Organizing Committee revoked the official accreditations of four TASS correspondents working at the 2024 Summer Games in the French capital citing a ruling made by the French authorities as the reason. There were no specific details provided later in the official statement from the Organizing Committee as it only referred to the Code of the French Interior Ministry’s security regulations.
"This is pure Russophobia, plain and simple," Bure said. "I cannot recall a single case where we [Russia] sent a foreign national home from international competitions, because that would raise red flags with the global community afterwards."
"But was it right to treat our correspondents this way? Is this what they call democracy? I don’t think so," Bure, who also serves as the Russian Hockey Federation’s (RHF) envoy on international affairs, said in an interview with TASS.
"We must all bear in mind that the Olympics is a sports event and not a political one," he continued. "Unfortunately, we all witnessed a purely political show in Paris, particularly during the opening ceremony."
"What that was I still don’t know. It had little to do with sports, to be honest," he continued speaking about the 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony. "They have turned everything into some sort of a political show, where certain people pushed their agendas, and the athletes fell into the background."
"The Olympics should be about a chance for fans to watch world-class athletes, but , unfortunately, today, this is not the case," Bure added.
In late July 2024, Paris 2024 spokeswoman Anne Deschamps told a news conference that The Organizing Committee of the 2024 Olympics in France was simply enforcing a previous decision made by the French government by revoking the accreditation licenses of four TASS journalists.