MOSCOW, Aug 25 — RIA Novosti. Competitions for Paralympians who can pass in Russia, should invite athletes from other countries, said the member of the Duma Committee on physical culture, sports and youth Affairs, President of the International Sambo Federation Vasily Shestakov.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia specially organizes competitions for Paralympians due to the fact that the Russian team was not allowed to participate in the Paralympics in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro.
“In my opinion, these competitions for Paralympians need to open for all comers, so that they can participate athletes from around the world. It is always interesting to compete with other strong rivals, and not just with each other. In this regard, I wish to call on the Russian media to provide maximum information support to those events, to find a comfortable for the audience the time to devote to individual stories of the participants”, — the Deputy told journalists on Thursday.
According to Shestakov, if the situation in world sport will continue to evolve in the same way, it will lead to the decline of the Olympic and Paralympic movement.
“Of course, everything must be done to keep this from happening, but in the case of a negative scenario, I believe that Russia can and must take responsibility for the revival of the Olympic movement in the best and original sense of the word. Let those who prefer to play secret games and mixing sports with politics, continues to do, well, we will recreate a clean Olympic movement in the spirit of the principles laid down by Pierre de Coubertin. I have no doubt that Russia organized sporting events with pleasure will arrive sportsmen from all over the world, because we all know that we are able to hold them at the highest level”, — concluded the MP.
Court of arbitration for sport (CAS) on 23 August rejected the claim of the Russian Paralympic Committee (RCC) the decision of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) of the removal of the Russians from the Paralympic games in 2016 and the deprivation of RCC membership in the organization.
