Kremlin confirms issuing list of suggested press responses for athletes at Tokyo Games

MOSCOW, July 14. /TASS/. The Kremlin has confirmed that it complied a list of recommendations for national Olympic athletes at the upcoming Tokyo Games with answers to potentially inflammatory and politically-loaded questions, Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. "The Kremlin supports such an initiative, but it will be up to each individual athlete whether to use it or not," Peskov told journalists. Asked whether such recommendations might come in handy, Peskov stated that "athletes are not politicians." "Unfortunately, many people want to make politicians out of them [the Russian athletes] and drag them into politics, they [the athletes] eventually get into complicated situations," Peskov noted. Russia’s Vedomosti daily reported earlier in the day that the country’s athletes had been handed detailed instructions laying out the guidelines on how to respond to potentially inflammatory and politically-loaded questions, such as about Crimea, harassment, the BLM movement and doping abuse. President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach arrived in Tokyo on July 8 and had to be quarantined for three days in his hotel room in line with local anti-COVID-19 measures. Bach previously received his novel coronavirus jab, but still had to obey the local organization’s restrictions and rules regarding the fight against the coronavirus. The 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Japan’s capital of Tokyo will be held this year between July 23 and August 8. In March 2020, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to postpone the 2020 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Japan for one year due to the spread of COVID-19. On July 8, the Kyodo news agency reported that organizers of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo decided against the presence of spectators at the Games in the Japanese capital and three neighboring prefectures because of the recent surge in the number of reported novel coronavirus cases. The organizers of the Olympics in Tokyo announced in March that all spectators from overseas would be barred from attending competitions in Japan, adding later that up to 10,000 local fans would be allowed per venue of the Games’ competitions. As of today, Japan is ranked 34th globally in terms of reported COVID-19 cases, which currently stand at over 824,580. A total of over 14,970 people have died of the novel coronavirus infection there, while more than 789,900 have recovered from the illness. Russian athletes will be competing in Tokyo under the flag and logo of the Russian National Olympic Committee (ROC) instead of the Russian national flag and state emblem. The national anthem of Russia is also barred from use at the Olympics in Japan. Sanctions against Russian sports On December 17, 2020, the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland’s Lausanne partially upheld WADA’s (the World Anti-Doping Agency) previous ruling on a number of sanctions against Russian sports. Following the CAS decision, Russian athletes were deprived of their right to participate in all World Championships, Olympic and Paralympic Games under the national flag of Russia for a two-year period. The national anthem of Russia was also prohibited from being played at international sports tournaments over the course of the next two years, even at the upcoming Olympic Games in Japan this summer. The ruling of the Swiss-based court also stripped Russia of the right to bid for the organization of all international sports tournaments for a period of two years. WADA’s sanctions will be in force until December 2022. Read more