MOSCOW, October 20. /TASS/. The primary objective of the Russian Sports Ministry is the full-fledged return of all Russian athletes to the international arena, Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.

"Our goal is for every athlete to return to the international arena under the national flag and to the tune of the country’s anthem," Degtyarev, who is also the president of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), noted.

"The Russian Olympic Committee has already been reinstated by the decision of the International Olympic Committee, all recommendations on discriminatory measures have been removed and we are now continuing to implement this decision jointly with the [sports] federations," he told Putin.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced a decision on July 7 to provisionally lift an earlier-imposed suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and also recommended lifting restrictions on the participation of Russian athletes in all international tournaments.

IOC previously-imposed sanctions against Russia, Belarus

On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to prohibit athletes from Russia and Belarus from participating 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 recommended allowing individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to participate in international sports tournaments, but only under specific 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 banned 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.