MOSCOW, May 28. President of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Luc Tardif on press conference said that the decision to remove the national teams of Russia and Belarus from the 2023 World Championship was postponed until the last. On May 27, the International Ice Hockey Federation denied the national teams of Russia and Belarus to participate in the 2023 World Championship. «From the very beginning, we tried to adapt to the situation. We waited as long as possible before extending the suspension, hoping for an improvement in the situation, but this did not happen. Now there is nothing more we can do, «the official website of the federation quotes Tardif. Tardif also noted that due to the suspension of two national teams of the federation problems with the movement of teams between divisions cannot be avoided. The federation will determine the mechanism later. In February, the IIHF Council suspended the national teams of Russia and Belarus from international competitions for an indefinite period. The teams are missing out on the 2022 World Cup, which is taking place in Finland. The place of the Russian team was taken by the French team, the Belarusians were replaced by the Austrians.
