Posted: Nov 26, 2021 14:30 GMT
This month it emerged that the US, Australia and the UK were considering announcing a diplomatic boycott of the Olympics.
Faced with reports of a possible diplomatic boycott by several countries of the Beijing Winter Olympics, which will be held in February 2022, Moscow and Beijing spoke out this week against the politicization of the event, which should remain purely sporting.
“We are opposed to the politicization of the Olympic Games wherever they are and, without a doubt, this position applies to the celebration of the Games in China. We believe that the sport should be kept out of politics“, declared this Thursday during a press conference the spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zajárova, quoted by TASS.
According to the Russian spokeswoman, there are “constant” attempts by Washington to use pretexts. not sports related to undermine the JJ celebration. OO. in countries “that the US considers it possible to pressure or influence in any way“It seems that they are those countries that are not subject to the orders of Washington,” he said.
At the same time, Zajárova stressed that Russia had gone through similar treatment when it hosted the JJs. OO. from Sochi in 2014.
The Russian spokeswoman also stressed that the country has no doubts that China “can organize at the highest level the celebration of this sporting event under the conditions of the existing epidemiological restrictions “.
This Friday, the spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Hua Chunying, joined Zajárova’s words. “I cannot agree more with Maria. From Sochi to Beijing, China and Russia have been together with equity, justice and solidarity“the spokeswoman for the Asian country tweeted in response to the statements of her Russian counterpart.
This month, various outlets reported that certain countries were considering announcing a diplomatic boycott of the JJs. OO. of Beijing, which would not affect the participation of its athletes, but would mean the absence of officials of the nations in question at the opening ceremony of the sporting event.
In mid-November, The Washington Post reported that the US was considering resorting to a diplomatic boycott in response to alleged human rights abuses against the Uighur minority in China.
In the days that followed, it was revealed that UK and Australian authorities were also considering the option of not sending their officials to the sporting event.
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