“The competition was to be held in Moscow and Yekaterinburg in the early fall of 2024. Then they were postponed to 2025”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
The sports tournament will not be held until a special order of the president, the document says.
Putin’s decree states that the competition was canceled “in order to protect the rights of athletes.” Putin ordered the deductions from bookmakers to be transferred to a new, yet to be created, fund to support sports in Russia.
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Moscow has announced the hosting of the Friendship Games in June 2023 amid the exclusion of Russian athletes from international competition due to a full-scale war against Ukraine. The event promised to host thousands of athletes from different countries. In addition to the traditional Olympic disciplines, competitions in acrobatic rock and roll, backgammon and sports programming were to be held there.
The competition was to be held in Moscow and Yekaterinburg in the early fall of 2024. Then they were postponed to 2025. Athletes were promised 40,000 dollars for the victory, 30,000 and 20,000 dollars respectively for second and third place. It was planned to allocate 8.3 billion rubles ($83 million) to host the games.
According to the law, the sole regulator of gambling was supposed to give tournament organizers a quarter of 2 percent of their total deposits.
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The International Olympic Committee and the international anti-doping agency WADA strongly opposed the tournament. Director General of the Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA, Veronika Loginova, told the state agency “RIA Novosti” that accredited laboratories refused to accept the results of doping tests taken at the tournament.
The IOC urged athletes not to travel to Russia, calling the World Friendship Games a cynical attempt to politicize sports, and also reminded that the Russian government “demonstrates complete disrespect for global anti-doping standards and competition integrity.”
It was not planned to admit Russian athletes who competed at the Olympics in Paris under a neutral flag to the Friendship Games. None of the countries, except for Belarus, which was excluded from international tournaments, announced its participation.