Putin: Russia, China Against Sports Politicization, Boycotts, Stand for Olympic Values

"We are standing together [with China] against the politicization of sports and demonstrative boycotts," Putin said at a meeting with athletes of the Russian national Olympic team, adding, "We are supporting traditional Olympic values, first of all, equality and justice," TASS reported.

The president of Russia said he had a scheduled meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping before the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics.

"We will certainly outline new plans of cooperation, taking into account our previous agreements on the organization of the Year of Russian-Chinese cooperation in the sphere of physical culture and sports," Putin said.

He also said that one of the most well-known methods for the mass popularization of sports is the organization of large-scale international sports tournaments.

"I believe them to be the most important in terms of the involvement of people in sports and the strengthening of friendship between the peoples," Putin said.

On December 6, 2021, Washington announced a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Olympics, saying that no US officials would attend the Games. The Joe Biden administration later informed its allies and partners overseas of the move, leaving them the right to decide for themselves on attending the Beijing Olympics.

Demands for boycotting the Beijing Winter Olympics were earlier voiced by politicians from Canada, Norway, and the United States as well as by representatives of about 200 human rights organizations around the globe over China’s alleged human rights abuses in the Xinjiang autonomous region.

In response, China slammed the US decision as a political ploy that ran counter to the Olympic Charter and vowed to take retaliatory measures. Australia and Japan joined the US diplomatic boycott of the Games. New Zealand, in turn, said that its officials would not travel to Beijing due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The 2022 Winter Olympic Games in the Chinese capital of Beijing are scheduled to be held from February 4-20, while the Paralympic Winter Games will be held on March 4-13.

During the 128th IOC session in Kuala Lumpur on July 31, 2015, Beijing was chosen to host the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games making the Chinese capital the first city ever to host both the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games (in 2008) as well as the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games (in 2022).

Beijing won the right to host the 2022 Olympics and Paralympics in a tight race, beating Kazakhstan’s Almaty in 2015, by chalking up 44 votes against its rival’s 40.