IOC President Thomas Bach opens a meeting of the organisation's Executive Board. GETTY IMAGES. GETTY IMAGES

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday accused Russia of "politicising sport" by launching its so-called Friendship Games from next September. The new competition will compete with the Olympic Games, and Russian organisers are also planning a winter edition.

The IOC, which only allowed Russian athletes to take part in this year's Paris Olympics under a neutral flag and on condition that they did not support Russia's offensive in Ukraine, called on the sporting world and the governments invited by Moscow "to reject any participation in and support for this event," it said in a statement.

Announced a few months ago, the first edition of the Summer Friendship Games is "planned to be held in Moscow and Yekaterinburg" next September, the IOC said, with the first winter edition to take place in 2026 in Sochi, venue for the highly controversial 2014 Winter Olympics.

These two initiatives come on top of the recent Games of the Future in Kazan, which combined traditional disciplines and e-sports, and the BRICS Games which take place in the same city in June. Russian authorities claim that "athletes from more than 50 countries" will take part in the latter.


The IOC is not criticising the Russians for creating multi-sport competitions outside its aegis as several already exist, including the Commonwealth Games and the Jeux de la Francophonie, but for doing so via a "very intensive diplomatic offensive" through direct contacts with governments around the world.

"To make their purely political motivation even more obvious, they are deliberately bypassing the sports organisations in their target countries. This is a blatant violation of the Olympic Charter and at the same time a violation of various UN resolutions," the IOC said in a statement.

"It is a cynical attempt by the Russian Federation to politicise sport." The IOC has also accused Moscow of "total disregard for the global anti-doping standards and the integrity of competitions", citing concerns raised  last week by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) over institutionalised doping at the Sochi Games 10 years ago.

"This position is reinforced by the fact that the Russian National Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) is currently non-compliant with the Code, there is currently no WADA-accredited laboratory in Russia and overall confidence in the anti-doping system in Russia remains low," the IOC said.