Kremlin says will talk with IOC ‘to defend our rights’
Moscow, (MILLAT ONLINE):Moscow said on Wednesday it would talk with the International Olympic Committee “to defend our rights” after a number of top Russian athletes were confirmed banned from the 2018 Games.
Short track speed skating star Victor An along with Olympic champion biathlete Anton Shipulin, world champion skier Sergei Ustyugov and others were excluded from Pyeongchang this week, prompting a furious reaction from Russian officials.
“We need to talk with the IOC and we need to defend our rights, as far as this is possible,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.
“The most important thing is to keep a sober approach, primarily in the interest of our athletes who, as you know, took the decision participate in these Games if they could,” he said.
The IOC banned Russia from the 2018 Olympics after a report on a vast, Moscow-backed doping scheme in previous Games.
Russians who want to compete are being forced to pass a unique set of anti-doping tests, with those deemed clean allowed to appear in Pyeongchang under a neutral flag as an “Olympic Athlete from Russia”.
“It’s important to avoid words such as ‘boycott’,” Peskov said, after some sportspeople and politicians suggested Russian athletes should pull out following the latest bans.