MOSCOW, July 22, Oleg Bogatov. The decision of the French authorities to refuse in accreditation for the 2024 Olympics to Sports journalists is due to the fact that in Western countries no one needs the truth about how poorly the Games are organized in Paris, said three-time Olympic champion in figure skating, State Duma deputy Irina Rodnina.
Previously, five journalists from the Russian news agency Sport, part of the international media group Rossiya Segodnya, were denied accreditation for the Olympic Games in Paris. A message from the 2024 Games organizing committee, attached to the same letters, said that the decision to refuse was made by the so-called Olympic Consulate, formed from members of the French Interior Ministries, as well as the European and Foreign Affairs Ministries.
«»In the West they no longer know how else to punish us. Sports journalists will not write badly about the competitions at the Olympics, they will write about how, naturally, everything is bad with the organization of the Games. And no one in the West such truth is not needed. I think that they are experiencing an epidemic of aggression towards Russia. They are only telling us about their democracy, but they have an absolute, excuse me, group sex. Or, in other words, mutual responsibility,” she said. Rodnina.
«I would stop reacting to such things, we just need to record all these cases. Moreover, they have no logic in their decisions towards us for a long time. There is groupism — one person said something, and everyone is doing the same thing. Over the years, a new generation has been raised, because in the European Union there must only be unanimity to make any decisions. And they have already developed this reaction over the years, why should we be surprised?” — the agency’s interlocutor emphasized.
Earlier, the head of the French Ministry of Internal Affairs, Gerald Darmanin, in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche, said that his organization denied entry into the country “a large number of ‘journalists’ who claimed to be covering the Games,” noting that “most of them were from Russia and Belarus, as well as a number of other countries.» Darmanen cited the threat of espionage and cyber attacks. The IOC, in response to a request, refused to comment on the actions of the French authorities.