MOSCOW, April 5, Sergey Fuks. Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture and In sports, Olympic biathlon champion Anton Shipulin expressed confidence that under the sanctions, Russian sports need to develop domestic competitions. At the end of February, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended that international sports federations not allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in competitions in Ukraine. A number of international federations followed this recommendation. «In any case, our athletes will continue to prepare and compete. While this is the situation, we should not hope that they will compete in the next international season, but develop our local tournaments, our sport. Due to this we will become stronger. Of course, I would like to see (Russian athletes) on the international arena, but here it is impossible to predict what will happen next. We are here only as observers. But we can develop sports within our country, «Shipulin said.
