The International Olympic Committtee (IOC) commission acted disgracefully by banning Russian athletes, acquitted by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), from participating in the Olympics in 2018 in South Korea, wrote Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on his VK account (Russian social network). He also called the decision by the IOC unethical and politically motivated and expressed his opinion that it has little to do with sports, but was aimed at inflicting political damage against Russia.
“By banning our athletes, who were reinstated by the CAS in their rights, the IOC has vandalized both the Olympic Charter and basic principles of law. […] The court has to be the one to issue the final decision. But now a group of people has decided to put themselves above the court,” he wrote on his page on the social network.
READ MORE: IOC Regrets CAS Decision to Uphold Appeals of 28 Banned Russian Athletes
He also added that the refusal to honor the CAS ruling is beyond comprehension and that the IOC's decision will have far-reaching repercussions.
First, business defeated the principles of Pierre de Coubertin in the IOC. And now politics has defeated the rules of law and decency.
The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) expressed its regrets over IOC's decision not to invite 13 Russian athletes and two coaches, who were acquitted by the CAS, to participate in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics on Monday.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport earlier upheld appeals of 28 Russian athletes that received a permanent ban from participation in the Olympics. Sanctions against them were lifted and all their rewards from the Sochi Olympics – returned. The ROC asked the IOC to send invitations to 15 athletes from the list of those acquitted, but the Olympic Committee refused to do so.