Plans for the Russian government to pick the leaders of many sports federations could mean the country’s athletes are barred from the Olympics, the head of the Russian Olympic Committee said Wednesday.
A proposal launched by Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko and set to come before the Russian parliament would allow the government to veto candidates for the leadership of any federation which receives more than half of its funding from the federal budget.
“It’s completely unacceptable when the state interferes in the functioning of public organizations,” Russian Olympic Committee head Alexander Zhukov, who is also the deputy speaker of the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament.
The law could lead to the International Olympic Committee banning Russian athletes, he said.
“There is a danger that we will be excluded from the Olympic movement and everything else. This is being followed very attentively at the IOC.”
The proposed law was also criticized Thursday by the head of the presidential administration, Sergei Ivanov, who suggested it could lead to a state-controlled “Chinese system”, with government officials making decisions best left to the federations.
Under the proposed law, the Sports Ministry, the Russian Olympic Committee and the Russian Paralympic Committee would be required to approve the nomination of all candidates to head sports federations.
Russia is to host the 2014 Winter Olympics in the southern resort city of Sochi.
