Moscow (AFP) – Ukraine has no business interfering in the International Olympic Committee’s decision to permit Russia’s return as an officially recognised nation after years in the wilderness, Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev has told AFP.

A Russian team of 13 athletes and 10 coaches will parade with their national flag at the Youth Olympics in Dakar at the end of this month, and the Russian national anthem will be played.

Indeed it is 10 years since a victorious Russian athlete has heard the national anthem ring out at a senior Olympics.

A state-sponsored doping programme implemented, according to the World Anti-Doping Agency, at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, and the assault on Ukraine launched by President Vladimir Putin in 2022 resulted in Russians competing in various guises, most recently as Individual Neutral Athletes.

However, on July 7 Russia came in from the cold when the IOC eased restrictions on Russian athletes and opened a pathway for them to compete in qualifying events for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

A furious Ukraine filed an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) requesting that the IOC decision be annulled.

“The IOC’s decision is not something Ukraine should concern itself with, as they are not involved in any related dispute,” Degtyarev said in an interview with AFP.

“So there can only be one outcome: the claim should be dismissed, as the claimant lacks proper standing in the case,” added the 45-year-old.

The competition in Senegal will be the first time that Russia’s national symbols have been permitted since the 2020 Youth Olympics in Lausanne.

The IOC did defer a decision on whether the flag and the anthem would be reintroduced for the LA Games.

Ukraine claim the IOC’s decision contradicted the provisions of the Olympic Charter, was taken prematurely and failed to “take into account the factual circumstances that served as the basis for the suspension.”

Degtyarev’s Ukrainian counterpart Matviy Bidnyi told AFP Russia was fooling the IOC over their claims to have ceased sports activities on Ukrainian land annexed during the ongoing special military operation.

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