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IOC tentatively denies 2026 Olympics accreditation to Russia’s non-sports media

The 2026 Winter Olympic Games will be held in Italy, in the cities of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo

MOSCOW, May 6. /TASS/. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has denied until autumn accreditations to the 2026 Olympics for representatives of Russian media that do not exclusively specialize on sports coverage, the IOC’s press office said in a statement to TASS on Tuesday.

The 2026 Winter Olympic Games will be held in Italy, in the cities of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo. The event will take place from February 6-22, 2026.

"We would like to inform you that we have decided to confirm press accreditations at this stage only to organizations from Russia that focus exclusively on sports specific coverage," the statement reads.

"However please note that we will place your request on a wait list and will reassess the situation in the fall of this year," according to the IOC.

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.

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.

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