Propaganda opportunity to good to waste — Putin sheepishly accepts IOCs demands on Russia’s ‘neutral’ Olympic

Tail between his legs, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has accepted all the conditions placed by the International Olympic Committee for Russian athletes to compete at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games.

He addressed the issue during a speech at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, ahead of a meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

"Those athletes who have been preparing for the most important competitions for years, decades, should make this decision for themselves," Putin said.

“But as for the Olympic movement itself, I think that the current leadership of the international federations, the International Olympic Committee itself, are distorting the original idea of Pierre de Coubertin,” he said.

Read also: Truly neutral Russian athletes should compete in 2024 Olympics – Kharlan

Russia has broken the Olympic truce three times since 2008.

The IOC recommended in March 2023 that Russians be allowed to compete as neutral athletes, though this doesn’t apply to athletes affiliated with the army or law enforcement agencies or for team sports.

Read also: PACE urges banning Russian athletes from Paris Olympics

Russia’s flag and anthem are also banned at international competitions, though this has been the case since at least 2018 as a response to repeated Russian doping violations.

Russian officials had earlier expressed outrage at the IOC’s demands, calling any Russian athlete willing to compete as a neutral athlete “traitors.”

At the time, Putin had even promised to organize an alternative Olympics. But now the wanted war criminal has unconditionally accepted all the IOC's demands.

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