BUDAPEST, March 26. /TASS/. Hungary believes sports should be kept free of politics and stands against any political sanctions against sports organizations, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said on Wednesday.
Szijjarto, who is currently on a visit to Moscow, met earlier in the day with Russian Sports Minister and President of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Mikhail Degtyarev.
The top Hungarian diplomat said after the meeting that "mixing sports with geopolitical conflicts is unacceptable," adding that "Hungary is at the forefront of the fight to keep sports separate from geopolitics."
"Sports should not be used as a tool to escalate conflicts but rather to resolve them and restore peace between nations," Szijjarto wrote on his account in FaceBook (banned in Russia due to its ownership by Meta designated as extremist).
"That is why we previously objected to the inclusion of the Russian Olympic Committee and Russian sports clubs in the EU sanctions list," he noted.
Szijjarto recalled how back in 1984 governments of Socialist countries prohibited their athletes from traveling to the United States to participate in the Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
"It always brings back bad memories when athletes are suspended from international tournaments or Olympics," the Hungarian minister said.
Szijjarto also lauded the fact that Russian athletes participated in the 2024 World Aquatics Championship (25m), which took place in Budapest, Hungary, on December 10-15, and that Russian athletes would also participate in the upcoming Fencing World Cup in the Hungarian capital.
Following his meeting with Szijjarto, Degtyarev announced that he would attend the 2025 World Judo Championships in Hungary in June as part of the Russian delegation. Russian judokas are preparing to take part in this tournament.
IOC 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.