The International Olympic Committee ( IOC ) has made changes to the Olympic Charter aimed at strengthening the “neutrality” of sport from any political interference. This de facto paves the way for the full return of the Russian Federation and its athletes to world competition without any political or security restrictions.

This is reported by Censor.NET, citing the official decisions of the IOC session in Lausanne and a publication by the Reuters news agency.

Legalized “neutrality”

Under the changes approved in Lausanne, the IOC seeks to “ensure the neutrality of sport at all times.” The updated Charter now requires that the Olympic Movement remain immune to “governmental, cultural, social or economic pressure.”

Officially, the IOC claims that the reforms have an exclusively noble goal — to protect the competitions from external influence and prevent the Olympics from being used for political purposes. However, these formulations are a direct legal loophole that eliminates the existing barriers to Russia’s return to international sport, despite the ongoing hostilities in Ukraine.

The Committee’s decision has already sparked a wave of criticism from human rights organizations. Rob Koehler, CEO of advocacy group Global Athlete , openly called the IOC’s move a legalization of war crimes in sports arenas.

“The message will be clear: war, systematic doping and repeated violations of the Olympic Charter are no longer an obstacle to full participation,” Reuters quoted Koehler as saying.

Step-by-step withdrawal from sanctions

• As a reminder, in May the IOC lifted all restrictions on Belarusian athletes. There has been growing speculation that a similar decision could be made for Russia in the coming months.
• After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, the IOC recommended that international federations completely suspend athletes from the Russian Federation and Belarus. However, in November of the same year, the rhetoric changed: the organization began to promote the thesis of admitting athletes “regardless of political conflicts”, effectively forgetting that before that, Russia was also subject to severe restrictions for large-scale doping violations at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Джерело: https://censor.net/ua/n4010069

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