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 don't know where else to punish us. Sports journalists won't write badly about the competitions at the Olympics, they'll write about how, naturally, everything is going badly with the organization of the Games. And no one in the West needs that kind of truth. I think they're experiencing an epidemic of aggression towards Russia. They only tell us about their democracy, but what they have is absolute, excuse me, gangbanging. Or, in other words, mutual responsibility,» Rodnina said.
«I would stop reacting to such things, we just need to record all these cases. Especially since they've had no logic in their decisions towards us for a long time now. There's gangsterism — someone says something, and everyone does the same. A new generation has been brought up over these years, because in the European Union, only unanimity is required to make any decisions. And this is a reaction they've developed over the years, what's surprising about that?» — 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 had refused entry to the country to «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.» Darmanin cited the threat of espionage and cyber attacks. In response to a request, the IOC declined to comment on the actions of the French authorities.