The reason the IOC does not recommend the Russian Federation’s full return to world sport is doping, not the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. The Guardian writes about this with reference to sources.
On May 7, the IOC officially recommended that athletes from Belarus be allowed to participate in international competitions under the country’s flag, but no such decision has been made in relation to Russia.
The organization’s press release did not mention the reasons, but only confirmed that the IOC remains “concerned” about the Russian Federation. No specific details were provided there.
Sources told The Guardian that this concern stems from a recent report by The Insider linking Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) CEO Veronika Loginova to the government doping program that was in place during the Sochi Games.
According to journalists, Loginova’s partner, forensic expert of the Russian Anti-Narcotics Agency Dmitry Kovalev, is a colonel of the 2nd service of the Federal Security Service, which was responsible for the doping program in Russian sports. The second service also oversees the Internet blockade in Russia, and its employees are implicated in the poisoning of Alexei Navalny and Vladimir Kara-Murza.
Grigory Rodchenkov, who told the world about the state program to replace samples of Russian athletes during the 2014 Winter Olympics, wrote the book “Doping. Banned Pages.” This is at once self-fiction, production fiction, detective investigation, and a consistent debunking of the myth of “pure sport,” but it is also the life story of Rodchenkov himself. Order “Dope. Forbidden Pages” or you can buy other books from our publishing house in our website This link.
Russian and Belarusian athletes were denied the opportunity to compete under their national flags after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.
The IOC’s recommendation to lift restrictions on Belarusian representatives does not mean automatic admission to the competition. Final decisions in each sport will be made by the relevant international federations.