The 2006 Turin Olympic champion Svetlana Zhurova has called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to deprive Ukrainian athletes of the flag and anthem after the Ministry of Sport banned them from competing with Belarusians and Russians. The State Duma deputy called this decision a defence of our compatriots.

Zhurova expressed this absurd opinion in an interview with Sport-Express. She called the decision of the Ministry of Sports of Ukraine interference in sports and its politicisation, forgetting that the terrorist state finances even the country's football teams from the budget.

"I want to protect Ukrainian athletes. They have no one to turn to. They will not dare to go to anyone to defend their rights. It's absolutely terrible. I'm hypothetically fantasising, but the IOC has the ability to suspend a country, i.e. deprive it of its flag, when a politician interferes too much in the affairs of the Olympic Committee and NGOs. So, there is a possibility to transfer Ukraine to a neutral status and say to the athletes: "Don't compete for the country anymore, compete for yourself." They can offer this," Zhurova said.

On March 20, the Ukrainian Fencing Federation decided that its athletes and technical specialists would not participate in tournaments where athletes from Russia and Belarus were going to compete. This is how our representatives in this sport responded to the decision of the International Fencing Federation (FIE) to return the aggressor country to its tournaments.

As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, two-time Olympic champion Vyacheslav Fetisov opposed Russian athletes condemning the war in Ukraine in order to participate in international competitions, talking about the "most terrible" consequences.

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