The ministers in charge of sports from dozens of countries in Europe, North America, and Asia issued a statement on May 4 saying they continue to oppose the participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus as neutrals in international sports competitions.
The sports ministers agreed to the statement after considering recommendations by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on March 28 to allow individual Russian and Belarusian athletes to take part in international competitions without displaying national symbols.
“We maintain that the Russian state, which has broken the Olympic Truce twice, must not be allowed to use sport to legitimize its barbaric and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, nor should the Belarusian state be able to use sport to legitimize its complicity in Russia’s war of aggression,” the sports ministers or their equivalents in the 36 countries said in a statement.
The IOC's recommendations in March were condemned by Ukraine, which has raised the possibility of boycotting the Olympics if Russian and Belarusian athletes are allowed to compete.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Youth and Sports said a day after the recommendations were announced that Ukraine has "consistently advocated and will continue to insist" that given Russia's aggression in Ukraine and the assistance that Belarus has provided in the war effort, Russian and Belarusian athletes should not be present at international sports arenas.
The IOC's board said that the recommendations, which do not concern the participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus in the 2024 Paris Olympics, would be monitored.
The recommendations bar teams from the two countries, athletes who actively support the war, and athletes who are "contracted to the Russian or Belarusian military."
The statement from the 36 sports ministers or their equivalents said that some concerns they had raised had been addressed by the IOC, but substantial issues remain, including potential military connections of athletes, state funding, the definition of teams, and enforcement mechanisms.
The statement said the countries also are closely watching the implementation of the IOC recommendations and that "if these issues are not addressed, we would expect the IOC to reconsider its approach.”
The countries said their position “is not one of discrimination against individuals on the basis of their passport" and reaffirmed that they respect the rights of all athletes to be treated without discrimination in accordance with the Olympic Charter.
The countries whose sports representatives signed the statement are Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States.