26 Jan 2018 15:05

State Duma deputy suggests parliamentary hearing on IOC's discrimination

MOSCOW. Jan 26 (Interfax) - State Duma deputies suggest holding parliamentary hearings involving Russian athletes barred from the Olympics, foreign athletes, and coaches to discuss the arbitrariness of international sports institutions in their treatment of honest athletes.

"The Olympics will be held on February 9-25. The new outrageous decisions by the IOC yesterday and the day before yesterday cannot not be discussed. I suggest [...] gathering here in the hall of the State Duma in that period all of the athletes and coaches who were barred from the Olympics by these absolutely discriminatory, unprincipled decisions, gathering other athletes and coaches from the whole world in this room and holding broad hearings [on] what to do with those who usurped the right to take decisions, disregarding traditions and the Olympic Charter," Oleg Nilov, deputy head of the A Just Russia faction, said in the State Duma on Friday.

It is necessary to evaluate the events taking place in the Olympic movement and take concrete steps toward resolving problems in the international sports community, Nilov said.