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Ukraine Joins Row Over Russian Athlete Biographies


Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Hryshchenko
KYIV -- Ukraine has joined Georgia in requesting corrections from London Olympic organizers to some athlete biographies that erroneously list their birthplaces as Russia.

Foreign Minister Kostyantyn Hryshchenko said he had asked the Ukrainian ambassador to Britain to request changes.

The problem applies to at least 10 athletes on the Russian Olympic team who were born in different parts of the former Soviet Union.

Their biographies on the official London2012.com website place Armenia; Baku; what the website calls the "Kazakhstan Region"; Dushanbe; Ukraine; as well as South Ossetia and a city in Abkhazia -- both breakaway regions of Georgia -- as being in Russia.

A spokesman for the London Games said organizers are "aware of this issue" and are awaiting a response from the relevant national Olympic committees that provided the information.

With reporting by Interfax
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