The Russian government won't prevent athletes from going to the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympic Games. Vladimir Putin announced this today while talking with the Gorky auto factory workers in Nizhny Novgorod.
- We're deeply concerned about yesterday's Olympic Committee's decision. What's your personal opinion on the subject, what will happen to our Olympic athletes?
Vladimir Putin: Overall, I’ve said it before, now that the decision has been taken, I can repeat jt once more. We still need to study the decision, there are many nuances that need to be understood, and we must read everything that's in this decision, I think it's important for us to do this. But first, I must say directly that we are partly to blame because we gave them a reason for this. Secondly, I think that this reason wasn't used fairly, to put it mildly. And I'll tell you why. First, because this is a collective responsibility, and no legal system in the world prescribes collective responsibility for rule infractions. Second, most charges are based on the facts that are not proven and are largely unfounded. They are based mainly on the testimony of a person whose moral and ethical attitudes and whose mental state raises many questions, there's nothing else. There's nothing else at all.
What's important is that the commission's conclusions write that there was no government- supported doping system in Russia. This is an important conclusion. But if that's so, then why is it forbidden for our athletes to perform under the Russian flag and Russian symbols, if there's no government support? Punish those who are guilty. And second, if there's no state-sponsored doping, then why can't they compete under our national symbols? This, of course, is a big question.
Despite this, we definitely will not declare a boycott, we won't prevent our Olympic athletes from competing if any of them want to compete on their own. I know many of the athletes myself, and they worked towards this competition throughout their whole life, not just the last few years of preparation. They have prepared for this throughout their career, it's very important to them, therefore, based on these considerations, we won't forbid anything to anyone, we won't block anything, or make it impossible to compete. But we still need to carefully familiarize ourselves with the decisions that exist, get to know them on paper and in detail. Of course, the final decision must be taken by the Olympic Committee. I think it is to take place soon.
- Thank you very much. Thank you for your comment.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you too.
-For what?
Vladimir Putin: For your attention.
- We are worried.
Vladimir Putin: I also worry about the guys, many of them are not just acquaintances, I consider them my friends, and I'm very worried about them. Each of them must make some decision, and there's another problem. First, unlike other athletes, ours will be checked 3 times.
- Yes, we heard yesterday.
Vladimir Putin: -And what does that mean? And how will it be organized? At the last Olympics, one of our athletes, a freestyle wrestler I guess, he was tested before going to the carpet at night, they woke him up at night. He won, but then he lost consciousness. How will this be done? How will this be organized? We don't know.
And we don't understand how team competitions will be organized. Which symbol will they compete under? This isn't a trivial question either. Many other questions that need an answer.
But in the end, the athletes themselves will have to make a decision, each one for themselves. In a team, and individually: who will compete and how.
And the process is continuing, there's still this threat. Will they be kicking out our top athletes one by one? And what kind of team will we have then? A team of 3rd, 4th, 5th best players? And then, excuse me, how will it look like? They may tell us: "We just exposed the doping problem, and here's the result," there's no result. And this is also, to put it mildly, not a very fair and honest approach.
- Yes.
Vladimir Putin: "Put it mildly". There's also another problem of taking the so-called prescribed medications for medical reasons. Take our skiers for example, they sweat and work hard. And then their competitors come, and they bring a ton of papers: one has one disease, another has another, they are all sick. Maybe they should compete at the Paralympics? No, they all compete and take drugs forbidden to others, they have obvious competitive advantages. For some reason, no one pays attention to this.
- But they're sick.
Vladimir Putin: Sick, and after operations, and after the operations they can take the drugs. So there's a huge number of exceptions like this that don't contribute to creating a fair competition.
Regarding the past events, including the Sochi Olympics, I never set a task before, say, the Ministry of Sport, before other agencies, before the federations, to win the Olympics. No such task ever existed! We had another super-task: to prepare the Olympics, and hold it with dignity, both for our athletes and fans, and for those who love sport all over the world. This was our great task, and we accomplished it brilliantly.
Let's recall how it was developing before the Sochi Olympics. We forgot because we forget bad things quickly. But what really took place? We constantly heard the same thing over and over, that Russia isn't ready, Russia won't be able, Russia won't do it. And when everything turned out OK, everything was done, another line of attack started: it's bad here, it's bad there, it's not fair here, then meldonium started, no one had talked about meldonium before, and everyone had been taking it all their lives, and then it was banned and they started disqualifying our athletes. All this looks like a completely staged and politically motivated decision. But we see this, and I don't have any doubts about it, the question is how the Olympic Committee will act and what decision they will take.
But I repeat that Russia will not boycott anything and won't create barriers to those athletes who want to compete on their own.
