“No one who tolerates or approves the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the policies of Vladimir Putin and the Russian government should take part in the Olympic Games”, said President Andrzej Duda.

The Polish president was asked about his position on the participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus in next year’s Games in Paris by journalists on Thursday in London.

“I absolutely believe that no one who tolerates or approves of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the policy pursued by Vladimir Putin, by the Russian authorities, should take part in the great festival of sport, the great festival of peace and friendship that is the Olympic Games. And I don’t think anyone has any doubts about that”, responded Andrzej Duda.

At the end of January, the IOC announced that Russians and Belarusians will be allowed to take part in the 2024 Games in the French capital, only they will not be permitted to display their national colours and will be barred from hearing their national anthems.

The head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Thomas Bach, said that opening the gate to Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in next year’s Games in Paris does not mean that the organisation he heads is “on the wrong side of history”. Earlier, in a letter to Bach, Ukrainian athletes instead declared that the IOC was “on the wrong side of history” after Bach called on Ukraine to stop threatening to boycott the Paris event.

Athletes from Russia and neighbouring Belarus were excluded from a number of international competitions after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago. Last week, at an online meeting of sports ministers from 35 countries, a majority voted in favour of the outright exclusion of athletes from Russia and Belarus from next year’s Paris Games.

Arkadiusz Slomczynski