MINSK, July 6 Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin said that Russian and Belarusian sports communities need to join forces under the sanctions and «become even stronger.» Earlier, the International Olympic Committee recommended that sports federations not allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in competitions due to the situation in Ukraine, where a Russian military special operation began. «Now we have difficult period when we feel sanctions pressure from the international community.But our countries have a huge natural, human resource.This is the time when we need to combine our efforts to get out of this situation and become even stronger.It is important to note that sport unites.We see how the sports communities of the two countries actively help each other,» Matytsin said in Grodno at the joint board of the sports ministries of Belarus and Russia. The words of the Russian minister are quoted by the Sputnik Belarus agency. He added that now Russian and Belarusian athletes and sports organizations are demonstrating to the whole world that without two countries the development of world sports will be uninteresting. Matytsin also noted that during sanctions pressure it is important to pay attention to the development of the sports sector. «Sport is one of the few areas of activity that educates people. Where the flag is raised, the anthem sounds, where a person feels that he represents a great country — Belarus, the Russian Federation. This educational moment is important,» he said.
