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IOC President Thomas Bach (l.), Russia President Vladimir Putin (2014)
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Charlie Riedel/ AP
IOC President Thomas Bach has called for an open discussion on the return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to world sport.
“They cannot be punished for the actions of their governments.
We are investigating ways to enable their participation," Bach said after the meeting of the Executive of the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne.
Bach praised the "creative plan" for the Russians and Belarusians to compete as part of Asia and not Europe.
This should enable them to take part in Olympic qualifying competitions in Asia.
Qualifications are already underway in some sports.
At the same time, Bach underlined the position of the Rings organization from February.
The sanctions against Russia and Belarus "must remain in force due to the current situation," he said.
However, Bach also referred to the UN General Assembly in September or the G20 summit in November, at which several statesmen had appealed for sport to be independent of politics.
»A unifying force and not a divisive force«
"We had to violate our own values," said Bach: "We should never exclude athletes from competitions because of their passports.
Their participation should be based on sporting achievements, not political interference.” The Olympic movement must develop “a unifying force and not a divisive force”.
Further discussions in this regard would be held at the Olympic Summit, which will take place on Friday with the Russian OC President Stanislav Pozdnyakov as a guest.
Other points of contact are the IOC members, the heads of the National Olympic Committees, the international professional associations and athletes' representatives.
Athletes from Russia and its military ally Belarus were largely banned from international sport on the recommendation of the IOC in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
One exception is professional tennis, but players from these countries were not allowed to compete in the grass tournament in Wimbledon.
A decision that Bach also heavily criticized on Wednesday.
The ATP recently imposed a fine of millions for the British Tennis Association.
bka/sid/Reuters