Lausanne (AP) – IOC boss Thomas Bach is trying to distance himself from the Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin, who has long been courted by the sports world. In a media round, the President of the International Olympic Committee assured that people hadn’t really spoken to each other “for a number of years”.
“I can’t look inside his head,” Bach said when asked about Putin’s motives for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the breach of the Olympic truce, which was in force until March 20. “I can’t give an explanation,” Bach said.
The head of the IOC said he had not recently spoken to Putin on the phone and talked about the sport’s measures against Russia. On February 28, the IOC recommended that all international federations ban athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus from competitions.
On February 4, Putin was a grandstand guest at the opening of the Winter Olympics in Beijing. In the past, there have always been meetings between Bach and the Russian head of state, including at the 2018 World Cup in Russia and during the European Games in Minsk, Belarus. In 2001, the IOC awarded Putin the Olympic medal in gold, which has now been revoked.
According to Bach, there was already irritation with Putin over the course of the penalties imposed on Russia for state-organized doping at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi and the manipulation of laboratory data. There were several hacker attacks during the investigation, the 68-year-old added. Since then, “no real discussions have been possible” with Putin.