Strained relations between the West and Russia are not an obstacle to Moscow wanting to take over the International Olympic Committee (IOC). As reported by the Polish website sport.pl with reference to the Russian TV station Match TV and the Kommersant website, they want to appoint their own candidate for the position of president.
Photo: John Walton / PA Images / Profimedia
Olympic rings during the closing ceremony in Paris.
As is well known, the current head of the committee, Thomas Bach, said shortly before the end of the Olympic Games in Paris that he would remain in his current position only until next year.
The Russians were probably frightened by media reports that the current head of World Athletics, Sebastian Coe, could run for the post of IOC president.
He is known to have an uncompromising attitude towards doping and Russian sport, which is closely linked to the government regime.
He was personally against fifteen Russian athletes participating in the Olympic Games in Paris, regardless of the fact that it would be under the banner of independent athletes.
According to the mentioned sources, the Russians want Umar Kremľov, the current controversial head of the International Boxing Association (IBA), who is a “good acquaintance” of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, to become the new president of the IOC.
The IOC no longer recognizes the IBA and last year decided that this organization would no longer cover boxing under the five rings.
IBA did not participate in boxing competitions in Paris for the second consecutive Olympics, and in Tokyo everything was covered by the IOC itself.
The IOC took such a step after the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, because after them it had concerns about the management of the organization, financing by the Russian state-controlled gas giant Gazprom, and there was also dissatisfaction with the integrity of the duels under the five rings.
The same Kremlin caused the case surrounding the Algerian Imane Khelif and the Taiwanese Lin Yu-ting, who were allowed by the IOC to start in Paris.
Both were disqualified from the World Championships by the IBA last year after they allegedly failed gender tests. The Kremlin said that DNA tests allegedly showed that they have XY chromosomes (this indicates the male sex, note).
The IOC questions the authenticity of these tests. Neither the Kremlin nor the IBA substantiated these claims, nor did they state in which laboratory and by what method the tests were performed.
However, it is possible that it was the Kremlin’s presentation and ONLY the implementation of the Kremlin’s strategy, i.e. the sowing of information chaos.
Source: sportweb.pravda.sk
