Vladimir Putin said he hoped the new leadership of the International Olympic Committee could work toward building up its relationship with Russia, according to state-owned media reports.
The Russian president made the remarks in a ceremony honoring boxers at the Kremlin on Wednesday where he was also critical of IOC policies that have barred his country’s athletes from international competition following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
And while Putin did not make a direct reference to any officials, he alluded to former IOC president who Thomas Bach stepped down last June after 12 years in office.
“The shameful, I would say cowardly, politically motivated behavior of the previous leadership of the International Olympic Committee has caused enormous damage to the Olympic movement and to the very principles of Olympism,” Putin said in his remarks. “I hope that the new leadership of the International Olympic Committee and international sports federations will overcome this legacy as soon as possible, which is difficult and, as I have already said, the shameful legacy of their predecessors.”
Even before the military action aimed at Ukraine, Russia and Bach’s administration were at odds after a sponsored doping program was uncovered involving dozens of athletes and at least 15 medal winners from the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.
Bach said in May 2016 that the overwhelming evidence of drug use at the Sochi Games was “detailed and therefore very worrying,” following a bombshell report in The New York Times that year revealing a sophisticated doping scheme had apparently been in the works in Russia for years.
But Putin’s comments on Wednesday also signaled that Russia could begin to establish some level of dialogue under new IOC president Kirsty Coventry.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino said on February 1 that he wanted Russia reinstated and playing in global soccer competitions. A day later in her address at the 145th IOC congress in Milan, Coventry echoed a similar sentiment, while not specifically mentioning Putin or Russia.
“[We must] focus on our core. We are a sports organization,” Coventry said. “We understand politics, and we know we don’t operate in a vacuum. But our game is sport.”
Coventry later said, “That means keeping sport a neutral ground — a place where every athlete can compete freely, without being held back by the politics or divisions of their governments. In a world that is increasingly divided, this principle matters more than ever.”
Russia has faced heavy sanctions since its invasion of Ukraine, while Belarus has also been hit with restrictions since it collaborated on the military action.
Shortly after the conflict began, the IOC ordered that no international competitions take place in Russia and that symbols like its flag be banned. In October 2023 the Russian Olympic Committee, was suspended from participating in any IOC activities with the ban currently ongoing as it violated the “territorial integrity” of Ukraine and its Olympic committee.
But in December 2023, the Olympic Movement permitted Russian and Belarusian to compete in the 2024 Paris Games with individual athletes and excluded team sports. Just 15 athletes from Russia and 17 from Belarus participated and were allowed as neutral entities, with no flags, emblems shown or any anthems played if medals were won.
A similar restriction was in place at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games and only 13 Russian athletes and seven Belarusians were present.
Putin noted that there was likely a bias in the continued barring of the athletes when active military action in other regions involve nations who are allowed to compete in international events.
“Selective sanctions against Russian athletes, under the pretext of condemning Russia’s actions to protect our people and our interests in the conflict in Ukraine, while completely ignoring numerous other similar tragic armed conflicts around the world, have only exposed the corruption and political bias of a significant portion of international sports officials,” he said.
Some signs of partially lifting the restrictions came in December 2025 when IOC Olympic Summit backed board recommendations to allow youth athletes from both nations to join international competitors with flags, anthems and insignias restored before the upcoming 2026 Dakar Youth Olympic Games in October and November.
