Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticized a political boycott of the Olympic Winter Games in Beijing as unacceptable.
“That is an unacceptable and wrong decision,” said the 69-year-old at his big annual press conference in Moscow with a view to the political boycott of the USA and other countries. Sport should not be used for political purposes. “We have always been against the politicization of sport,” said Putin. Unlike his US colleague Joe Biden, the Kremlin chief will travel to Beijing in February for the opening of the Games.
The political boycott of China was due to attempts to stop the country’s development. “There can be no other motive behind it.” Sport, like culture, should unite people and not create problems in relations between peoples and states, said the Kremlin chief. “If sport is deprived of this fundamental value, the entire international community will be damaged.” That is a “mistake”.
The US had announced that it would not send diplomatic or official representatives to the Games in China. Australia, Canada and the UK followed suit. New Zealand does not want to send diplomatic representatives either. China has been criticized for violating human rights in its dealings with Uyghurs and Tibetans, for suppressing the democracy movement in Hong Kong, and for threats against Taiwan.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz had said that he had not yet made a decision on a possible diplomatic boycott of the Winter Games. French President Emmanuel Macron had already made it clear that he did not consider a diplomatic boycott helpful.
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