Russian President Vladimir Putin announced this Monday (2) that he had resigned from organizing the Friendship Games, which were supposed to rival the Olympic Games and were scheduled for this year.
“To defend the rights of athletes and sports organizations to free access to international sporting activities”, Putin ordered “to postpone until a special decision” the organization of the World Friendship Games, according to a decree published on the government’s official legal documents website Russian.
Relations between Moscow and world sporting bodies have cooled in recent years following scandals and accusations of doping by the Russian state. The culmination was the conflict with Ukraine, since February 2022.
The Russian president announced the organization of the Friendship Games a year ago as an alternative to the Olympics, in the context of the offensive in Ukraine that provoked Western sanctions against Moscow.
The Friendship Games were scheduled for September in Moscow and Yekaterinburg. They were not kept and there was no official explanation as to why.
Russia, sanctioned in world sport for its offensive against Ukraine, was excluded as a nation from the Paris Games, being represented only by 15 athletes who competed with a neutral flag after a very rigorous screening.
Athletes authorized to compete would have to demonstrate that they did not support the Russian military intervention in Ukraine and that they did not belong to any club linked to the armed or security forces, as is customary in the country.
Deprived of their flag and anthem in the French capital, numerous Russian athletes decided to renounce the competition, denouncing “discriminatory” criteria.
Before the Games in France, the IOC (International Olympic Committee) accused Russia of “politicizing” sport, describing the potential organization of the Friendship Games as “a cynical attempt” to exploit athletes “for political propaganda purposes.”
