MOSCOW, April 18. /TASS/. The Armenian National Olympic Committee (ARMNOC) believes that politics has no place in sports and favors the return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to the international arena, ARMNOC Secretary General Grachya Rostomyan told TASS on Tuesday.
"The Armenian Olympic Committee is resolute in its stance that sports must be separate from politics," Rostomyan said. "We are against what is happening today in the world of sports, against the ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes being part of the Olympic family and their participation in international tournaments."
"For our part, we are ready to help in any way we can to bring back the Russian and Belarusian athletes," he continued. "I recently addressed the International Olympic Committee, stating that sports serves as a humanitarian bridge that cannot be destroyed."
"For instance, despite tense relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan, we traveled there in 2015 for the European Games in Baku and took part in all the events there," Rostomyan noted.
He also stressed that Armenia was not engaged in poaching top Russian athletes, who are currently stripped of their right to compete internationally because of sanctions.
"Inviting Russians underhandedly by taking advantage of their admission problems is wrong and dishonorable and we have nothing to do with it," the sports official said. "The Russian Olympic Committee [ROC] is our brother and it would never even occur to us to poach anyone."
"Does someone really want to drive a wedge between us? I will reiterate that one shouldn’t hold their breath waiting for a dishonorable act on our behalf," Rostomyan added.
At its session on January 25, 2023, the IOC Executive Board put forward a proposal to permit individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in international sports tournaments but only under certain conditions.
Athletes from the two countries should not be "actively supporting" Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and must compete under a neutral status. Russia and Belarus were also banned from participating in international team events.
Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) President Stanislav Pozdnyakov called these recommendations absolutely unacceptable as they would lead to a split in Russian sports. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov slammed the IOC’s recommendations as discriminatory.