“I am very disappointed with the decision to allow the aggressor countries Russia and Belarus to participate in the Paris Paralympic Games,” M. Bilius said in a statement published on Friday.
The General Assembly on Friday allowed the representatives of Russia and Belarus to participate in the 2024 Paris Summer Paralympic Games by secret vote of the members. National athletes are allowed to participate as neutral athletes, without national symbols.
“I, representing Lithuania, voted against the participation of Russia and Belarus in any form – with or without a flag. It is very sad and disappointing that the assembly lacked the votes, and maybe the courage, the heart for a different decision,” says M. Bilius.
He claims that since the beginning of the war and on the eve of the vote in Bahrain, he met and talked with representatives of the national committees of the world’s countries, taught Lithuania’s position and argumentation. One and a half hundred IPC members participated in the vote in Bahrain.
According to M. Bilius, it is noticeable that not all countries are equally aware of the horrors and threats of the war in Ukraine, especially countries that are geographically further away.
“We are talking with partner countries, what we could change, we are communicating with our Ukrainian friends. Since the beginning of the war, we have consistently supported Ukraine and condemned the aggression of Russia and Belarus. Together with our neighbors from Latvia, Estonia and Poland, the Paralympic Committees of the Scandinavian countries were the first to demand the removal of aggressors from sports events. A year ago, at the IPC General Assembly, we voted for the suspension of the Russian and Belarusian national paralympic committees,” says M. Bilius.
He says that he will consult with the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports of Lithuania and discuss with the Lithuanian Paralympic sports community, “what steps we can take so that Russia and Belarus remain outside the Paralympic Games – the biggest and most important sports festival for people with disabilities, where aggressors have no place.” to be”.
“With or without flags – there should not be any space,” M. Bilius, president of the Lithuanian Paralympic Committee, is convinced.
Russian athletes will be allowed to compete under a neutral flag at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games.
The announcement came shortly after officials voted against a total ban.
A majority of International Paralympic Committee (IPC) members on Friday allowed Russian athletes to compete without national flags, colors or emblems, hours after officials voted against a total ban.
Russia and ally Belarus have been banned from the Paralympics since February 2022, when Moscow’s troops invaded Ukraine.
A majority of IPC members voted to reject the outright ban at the organization’s General Assembly in Bahrain’s capital Menama.
Later on Friday, the IPC made a similar decision regarding Belarusian athletes.
TPK president Andrew Parsons said that the organization “firmly believes that sport and politics cannot be mixed”.
However, the IPC decided to partially suspend the activities of the Russian National Paralympic Committee for two years due to “violations of constitutional obligations of membership”.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the IPC banned athletes from Russia and Belarus from participating in the competition, and also suspended the activities of the Paralympic committees of both countries.
As a result, Paralympians from both countries could not participate in the March 2022 Winter Paralympics in Beijing.
In Friday’s vote, 90 TPK members voted for a full suspension, 65 voted against the motion and 6 abstained.
In the previous vote, 74 members of the IPC voted against the proposal to completely suspend the membership of Russia and Belarus. 65 members voted for a complete suspension, with 13 abstentions.
The decision comes two weeks before the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) session in Mumbai is expected to discuss the participation of Russia and Belarus in next year’s Paris Olympics.
The IOC has previously said that a decision on allowing athletes from Russia and Belarus to participate in the 2024 Olympics will be made in due course.
Since February 2022, when Russia launched its offensive in Ukraine, Russian and Belarusian athletes have been subject to sanctions in many sports.
Earlier in September, the Russian Olympic Committee said it would not boycott the Paris Olympics, adding that Russians could compete in the Olympics as neutral participants.
In July, the United Nations announced that 9,000 civilians, including 500 children, had been killed in Ukraine since the start of the war, although it estimated that the actual death toll could be much higher.
#disappointed #decision #aggressor #countries #participate #Paris #Games #Bilius
