BInterior Minister Nancy Faeser sharply condemned the IOC’s decision on the planned re-admission of athletes from Russia and Belarus. In a statement on Tuesday, the SPD politician spoke of a “slap in the face to Ukrainian athletes” in view of the ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine. Faeser emphasized: “There is no reason for Russia to return to world sport.”
The fact that the International Olympic Committee does not want to allow members of the Russian military or teams is only the absolute minimum and is not enough. “The Olympic Games do not take place in a vacuum. Anyone who lets the warmonger Russia use international competitions for its propaganda harms the Olympic ideal of peace and international understanding,” said the minister responsible for sport.
“IOC demonstrates lack of understanding of human rights”
“There isn’t the ‘neutral athlete’ that the IOC seems to envision. This will show the reaction of the Ukraine, which in all likelihood will result in a boycott of the games in Paris,” said the sports policy spokesman for the CDU/CSU, Stephan Mayer. The roles of perpetrators and victims are finally reversed in a grotesque way. The foreign policy spokesman for the Union faction in the Bundestag, Jürgen Hardt (CDU), criticized that it was “unreasonable for Ukrainian athletes to compete with athletes whom they may soon face at the front in a life-and-death struggle”. To expect that victorious Russian athletes will not then allow themselves to be harnessed to the Kremlin’s propaganda carts is therefore naïve at best.
The human rights commissioner of the federal government, Renata Alt (FDP), made a similar statement. Despite the neutral flag, the decision offers an international stage for the inhuman policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin. “The IOC is once again demonstrating a lack of understanding of human rights,” Alt said in a statement. Tina Winklmann, sports policy spokeswoman for the Bündnis90/Die Grünen parliamentary group, also expressed her disappointment. She wishes the IOC to reconsider its decision.
The German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) considers it wrong for Russian and Belarusian athletes to return to international competitions, but does not oppose the majority of those in favor. “The DOSB was and is still against the re-admission,” tweeted the umbrella organization of German sports on Tuesday. “But we accept that with this attitude we belong to a minority in international sport.” It is now all the more important that the strict requirements are credibly implemented and sanctions are imposed in the event of violations.
The IOC expressly left open a decision on whether Russian and Belarusian athletes would start at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris on Tuesday.