MOSCOW, June 19, Andrey Simonenko. President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach all the time makes multidirectional statements, based on them it is difficult to judge whether it is possible in the near future for Russian athletes to return to the international arena, says Honorary President of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), First Vice Speaker of the State Duma Alexander Zhukov. «Bach makes multidirectional statements all time, I would say, opportunistic. It is difficult to draw any conclusions based on his statement. Before that, he recommended the removal of all our athletes, then he said — it's bad that ours do not participate. Let's see, I think, in the end everything will return back, otherwise the Olympic movement will simply cease to exist,» Zhukov said. Earlier, the IOC executive committee recommended that Russian and Belarusian athletes be removed from participation in international tournaments, this recommendation followed by most of the international sports federations. On Sunday, at an extraordinary congress of the International Swimming Federation (FINA), Bach said that «world sport stands for unification and respect for common rules,» while noting that «the time has not yet come for the lifting of sanctions.»
