The International Olympic Committee’s decision to lift its years-long suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee has triggered calls in the EU to revoke the body’s European funding, Politico reported. The IOC provisionally reinstated Russia’s Olympic body on 7 July, paving the way for Russians to compete at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
Russia cleared for Los Angeles 2028
The IOC announced this week that it would pave the way for Russians to compete at the next Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028, though Russia’s flag and anthem remain banned. Russian athletes have been barred or forced to compete as neutrals since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The IOC formally took the decision to provisionally reinstate the Russian Olympic Committee on 7 July.
Estonia targets the IOC’s EU money
Estonia said it would propose that the European Commission cut off cash for the IOC by excluding the Olympic body from the EU’s funding programs, including Erasmus+.
“It is impossible to understand decisions that seek to bring aggressor countries back into international sport as if nothing had happened,” Estonian Culture Minister Heidy Purga said.
European Commissioner for Sport Glenn Micallef appeared to signal support.
“Athletes should not pay the price for the decisions of their governments. But sport cannot become a back door for normalizing aggression. If dialogue cannot guarantee that, the EU and its member states must be ready to consider proportionate steps to defend the values international sport is built on,” he told Politico.
Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braže called the IOC’s move a “dangerous message.” She argued that “Russia’s imperial ambitions seek not only to annex Ukraine’s territory, but also pursue international legitimacy of its conquests. It pursues both through every international platform available.”
The decision drew condemnation across the Atlantic as well. US lawmakers reacted with incredulity. The IOC has told Russia and the world that “you can bomb civilians one day and still proudly wave your flag at the Games the next,” Republican Senator Rick Scott wrote.
Kyiv: the ruling breaks the logic of sanctions
Ukrainian Sports Minister Matvii Bidnyi called the decision an “alarming signal” for the world and asked international sports federations to uphold their bans on Russian athletes.
Vladyslav Vlasiuk, Ukraine’s presidential commissioner for sanctions policy, stated that the IOC ruling contradicts the logic of international sanctions pressure, since Russian sport works as an instrument of state propaganda and support for the war. The Ukrainian World Congress demanded that the IOC cancel the decision altogether.
Russia keeps killing Ukrainian civilians daily — yet the Olympic movement now offers the aggressor state the international stage its war has cost it. The IOC’s reinstatement hands Moscow a propaganda victory no battlefield advance has delivered, normalizing the aggressor while its missiles level Ukrainian apartment blocks.
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