IOC suspends Russian Olympic Committee over admission of new regions' Olympic councils

MOSCOW. Oct 12 (Interfax) - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board has suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) over the admission of the Olympic councils of Russia's new regions (the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, the Zaporozhye region, and the Kherson region) to the ROC's structure, the IOC said on its website on Thursday.

"The Russian Olympic Committee is suspended with immediate effect until further notice," the IOC said.

The ROC's unilateral decision of October 5, 2023 to include the regional sports organizations under the Ukrainian National Olympic Committee's authority as its members, namely the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, the Zaporozhye region, and the Kherson region, constitutes a breach of the Olympic Charter as one violating the Ukrainian NOC's territorial integrity, as recognized by the IOC in accordance with the Olympic Charter, the IOC said.

The ROC is no longer entitled to operate as a national Olympic committee, as defined in the Olympic Charter, and cannot receive any funding from the Olympic movement, it said.

The IOC's decisions of March 28, 2023 remain fully in place, and the IOC reserves the right to decide on the participation of individual neutral athletes holding a Russian passport in competitions under its aegis at the appropriate time, it said.

On March 28, the IOC recommended that certain Russian and Belarusian athletes could be admitted to international competitions as neutral athletes, as long as they did not support the special military operation in Ukraine and were not contracted to national defense and security agencies, i.e. members of the CSKA or Dynamo sports societies.