Investigation suggests that most Russian Olympic athletes violate neutrality rules

More than two-thirds of Russian athletes competing in the upcoming Olympics have violated neutrality rules by publicly showing support for the invasion of Ukraine, human rights group Global Rights Compliance reported July 18.

Global Rights Compliance has published the evidence following an open source investigation into the Russian and Belarusian athletes who accepted the invitation to participate in the Olympic Games as Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN).

The Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided in December 2023 that Russian and Belarusian athletes would be allowed to participate as AIN in the Olympic Games in Paris, which begin on July 26, under “strict conditions of participation”.

According to the rules, Russian and Belarusian athletes are not allowed to participate as teams or display flags or official IDs of either country.

The rules also state that athletes or members of their teams who openly supported the war or had links to the military or security organizations of Russia or Belarus are barred from participating.

According to Global Rights Compliance, 67% of Russian and Belarusian athletes who accepted the invitation to participate in the Olympic Games and 44% of Belarusian athletes violated the rules by publicly showing support for the invasion of Ukraine or their respective country’s military.

Among the Russian athletes is Alena Ivanchenko, a cyclist who supported several pro-war posts on social media, “including posts questioning Ukraine’s right to exist and posts supporting the annexation of Donetsk and Luhansk,” according to Global Rights Compliance.

According to the report, tennis player Elena Vesnina liked posts on social media about Russian soldiers killing Ukrainians.

In early July, Ukraine called for Russian athletes to be banned from participating in the Olympic Games because there was evidence of their support for Russian military actions.

In a letter to the IOC, the President of the Ukrainian NOC, Vadym Gutzeit, and the acting Minister of Sports, Matvii Bidnyi, stated that many Russian athletes “did not meet sufficient criteria to obtain the status” of the AIN and represented a “gross violation of the established requirements” of the IOC.

Global Rights Compliance said it made its investigation public after “ignoring multiple warnings to the IOC.”

The IOC reportedly told Global Rights Compliance that the panel reviewing AIN’s eligibility “takes its task very seriously” and reviews the athletes in accordance with “the decision of the IOC Executive Board and the principles established.”

The IOC has so far taken no action and “failed to act in accordance with its own rules,” Global Rights Compliance said.

Global Rights Compliance said it was alerting the IOC’s corporate partners, which include multinational corporations such as Airbnb, Coca-Cola, Visa and Panasonic, “that they may be unwittingly complicit in condoning Russia’s criminal military action.”

Since the beginning of the large-scale Russian invasion, over 500 Ukrainian sports facilities have been damaged or destroyed and more than 450 Ukrainian athletes have been killed.

Ukraine will be represented at the 2024 Olympic Games with the smallest number of athletes in history

Only 140 Ukrainian athletes will compete at the Olympic Games in Paris this year, the lowest number of participants in the country’s history. The war in Russia has damaged or destroyed sports facilities, and training is often interrupted by air raid sirens.