Olympic champion Svetlana Zhurova has expressed confidence that Russian athletes are allegedly being forced to compete at the 2024 Paris Games as refugees. The State Duma deputy accused international organizations of humiliating athletes from the aggressor country.

She said this in an interview with the Russia Today propaganda channel. The winner of the 2006 Turin Games in speed skating criticized the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for temporarily excluding Russia from its membership after the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) illegally included the councils of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions in its membership.

"The EU is trying to make athletes accept refugee status. I have been saying this from the very beginning. They tried to influence Putin, saying that he would ban them from traveling without the flag and anthem himself. But it didn't work. Now they have suspended our committee and are one step closer to doing so. Everything is being done to dishonor Russia as a state," Zhurova said.

Earlier, four-time Olympian Alexander Tikhonov called Russia too kind after the ROC was expelled from the IOC.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, ROC President Stanislav Pozdnyakov "revealed" information "about the health status" of Kremlin dictator Vladimir Putin. In turn, the president of the Russian terrorist state accused the IOC of "ethnic discrimination" against Russians.

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