On the eve of the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) Executive Board meeting, two-time Olympic biathlon champion Dmitry Vasiliev expressed confidence that Russia will not be allowed to participate in the 2024 Games. The representative of the aggressor country accused the organisation and its president Thomas Bach of hypocrisy.

The former athlete said this in an interview with the propaganda channel Match TV. Vasilyev added that everyone is united against Russia and expressed dissatisfaction with the IOC's conditions for Russians to be allowed to participate in the Olympics, according to which athletes must condemn the war in Ukraine.

"There will be nothing good for us there. I think it will be another ball of vileness and hypocrisy. It all looks very cynical and disgusting. I'm talking about the behaviour of Thomas Bach, who was the first to suggest that Russian athletes should be suspended, and now he says that the athletes are innocent. Where were you before? Today, we shouldn't expect anything outstanding. Because those who rule the ball now are united against us. They are now offering us some kind of condition. Like signing a paper and recanting. Simply put, they are offering to become Judas. From a moral point of view, an athlete should support his country," Vasiliev said.

The IOC Executive Committee is scheduled to meet on March 28-30. On January 25, the IOC issued a new statement on the suspension of athletes from Russia and Belarus, in which it noted that it was ready to consider the return of athletes from these countries to international competitions. However, the athletes must meet certain criteria, including not supporting the war in Ukraine.

As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, Russian world hurdles champion Sergey Shubenkov, who mocked Ukrainian Yaroslava Maguchikh, said that Russia would go to the 2024 Olympics "somehow through one place".

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