Olympics-Russian and Belarusian athletes broke rules on Ukraine war, rights group says
By Anthony Deutsch and Filipp Lebedev
THE HAGUE, July 18 (Reuters) -Ten Russian and seven Belarusian athletes cleared to compete in the Paris Olympics have violated the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) rules on neutrality regarding Russia's invasion of Ukraine and should be barred, an international rights group said on Thursday.
Global Rights Compliance, which tracks violations of international humanitarian law in the conflict and assists war crimes prosecutors in gathering evidence of alleged violations, said it had presented evidence to the IOC substantiating the assertions, but that the committee had ignored its warnings.
The athletes in question are among 15 Russians and 16 Belarusians who have been cleared by a review panel established by the IOC and have accepted invitations to compete in the Games, which run from July 26 to Aug. 11, it said.
Global Rights Compliance called on the IOC to urgently reconsider the decision to clear the sportsmen and women and to "ban pro-war athletes according to its own rules and commitments to the United Nations Business and Human Rights Principles".
"These Olympic Games should be an opportunity for the IOC to affirm and demonstrate its respect for its own human rights policy," said Wayne Jordash, president of Global Rights Compliance.
He said the IOC was turning a blind eye to the involvement of Russian and Belarusian athletes who have shown support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
A spokesperson for the IOC said it could not comment on individual cases or on the decisions of the review panel, which had assessed the athletes according to the agreed guidelines. The IOC had nothing further to add, the spokesperson said.
The Russian and Belarusian Olympic Committees did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The IOC condemned Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, for which Moscow used Belarus as a launching pad. The Olympic body has ruled the Russian and Belarusian athletes may compete in Paris only as neutrals, without their national flags or anthems.
The IOC also set up the review panel in order to screen out Russian and Belarusian athletes who had publicly supported the war or were contracted to military or national security agencies.
Global Rights Compliance said it had determined through open-source investigation that 10 Russians and seven Belarusians had been cleared to compete despite violating those criteria.
Among those it named were Russian cyclist Alena Ivanchenko, who it said had "liked" a number of pro-war posts on social media, including posts questioning Ukraine's right to exist or supporting Russia's annexation of the Ukrainian territories of Donetsk and Luhansk.
The report said Russian tennis player Elena Vesnina had liked posts about "military feats" of Russian soldiers killing Ukrainians, and posts displaying the Russian pro-war "Z" symbol.
Ivanchenko and Vesnina did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Russian canoeist Alexei Korovashkov was named in the report as a member of a sports institution with links to national security agencies.
Reuters separately established that he had published, and subsequently deleted, social media posts in 2023 and 2024 in which he used grossly offensive language towards Ukrainians, including in a chat whose name referred to the war.
When contacted by a Reuters journalist, Korovashkov did not respond to questions and blocked the reporter from sending further messages.
Global Rights Compliance said that since the Russian invasion in February 2022, more than 450 top Ukrainian athletes had been killed in the war.
In February, the Ukrainian Olympic Committee asked the IOCto investigate the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes following alleged breaches of neutrality.
Global Rights Compliance said it would alert IOC corporate partners including AB InBev, AirBnb, Allianz, Atos, Bridgestone Corporation, Coca-Cola, Deloitte, Intel, Omega, Panasonic, Samsung, Toyota Motor Corporation and Visa that they could be unknowingly complicit in endorsing Russia’s war.
AB InBev declined to comment, while Samsung and Visa had no immediate comment. Reuters is seeking comment from the other companies.
Reporting by Anthony Deutsch and Filipp Lebedev in London
Additional reporting by Karolos Grohmann, Mark Trevelyan, Emma Rumney, Joyce Lee, Noor Zainab Hussain and Abhijith Ganapavaram
Editing by Frances Kerry
الأصول ذات الصلة
آخر الأخبار
إخلاء المسؤولية: تتيح كيانات XM Group خدمة تنفيذية فقط والدخول إلى منصة تداولنا عبر الإنترنت، مما يسمح للشخص بمشاهدة و/أو استخدام المحتوى المتاح على موقع الويب أو عن طريقه، وهذا المحتوى لا يراد به التغيير أو التوسع عن ذلك. يخضع هذا الدخول والاستخدام دائماً لما يلي: (1) الشروط والأحكام؛ (2) تحذيرات المخاطر؛ (3) إخلاء المسؤولية الكامل. لذلك يُقدم هذا المحتوى على أنه ليس أكثر من معلومات عامة. تحديداً، يرجى الانتباه إلى أن المحتوى المتاح على منصة تداولنا عبر الإنترنت ليس طلباً أو عرضاً لدخول أي معاملات في الأسواق المالية. التداول في أي سوق مالي به مخاطرة عالية برأس مالك.
جميع المواد المنشورة على منصة تداولنا مخصصة للأغراض التعليمية/المعلوماتية فقط ولا تحتوي - ولا ينبغي اعتبار أنها تحتوي - على نصائح أو توصيات مالية أو ضريبية أو تجارية، أو سجلاً لأسعار تداولنا، أو عرضاً أو طلباً لأي معاملة في أي صكوك مالية أو عروض ترويجية مالية لا داعي لها.
أي محتوى تابع للغير بالإضافة إلى المحتوى الذي أعدته XM، مثل الآراء، والأخبار، والأبحاث، والتحليلات والأسعار وغيرها من المعلومات أو روابط مواقع تابعة للغير وواردة في هذا الموقع تُقدم لك "كما هي"، كتعليق عام على السوق ولا تعتبر نصيحة استثمارية. يجب ألا يُفسر أي محتوى على أنه بحث استثماري، وأن تلاحظ وتقبل أن المحتوى غير مُعدٍ وفقاً للمتطلبات القانونية المصممة لتعزيز استقلالية البحث الاستثماري، وبالتالي، فهو بمثابة تواصل تسويقي بموجب القوانين واللوائح ذات الصلة. فضلاً تأكد من أنك قد قرأت وفهمت الإخطار بالبحوث الاستثمارية غير المستقلة والتحذير من مخاطر المعلومات السابقة، والذي يمكنك الاطلاع عليه هنا.
