"We can go to the 2028 Summer Olympics as a full-fledged national team"

Active work is underway to allow Russian athletes to enter the world stage using national attributes. On June 4, Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev told Izvestia on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum about which other sports Russian athletes will be allowed to compete in and whether limits on foreign players in the Russian Premier League (RPL) will be set in the future.

"Several more sports will soon be able to compete with national paraphernalia"

— Russian sports are starting to return to the international arena. Our athletes can use national attributes. What kinds of sports, besides fencing and martial arts, will be added?

— There will be a couple more sports soon. It cannot be announced yet. This may also violate the agreements and the process. But there will be good news. They will increase. All this is the result of systematic work on a diplomatic, legal and political settlement.

We use different approaches in different federations. Take winter sports, for example, skiing. We have defended the right of our athletes to be admitted to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in court. That is, if there were no court decision on skiing, we would have only one flag bearer, a flag and zero athletes at the Paralympics.

These are the six heroes who won the third place in the team competition, which we congratulate and are proud of. This decision is twofold: both the court and the vote of the Paralympic Committee. In some cases, it's just common sense and lobbying is healthy enough to help. I or the presidents of national federations in different sports meet, and together we negotiate and convince.

We cited the example of the aggression of the United States and Israel against Iran. Strangely enough, this helped us in such a negotiation process, because it revealed such obvious double standards that at any meeting we say: "Guys, we don't want to exclude Israel and America, but explain the difference." There are more and more such voices in the world, it helps us. And the IOC itself disavowed the violation of the Olympic truce, which was imposed on us in 2022, when it issued a statement that aggression against Iran during the Paralympic Games in Milan was not a violation of the Olympic Party.

So that's how it works: diplomacy, political and legal negotiations. We have a strong team in Switzerland that works for the Olympic Committee.

— How would you rate the first performance at the Paralympics with the anthem and flag of our athletes? How difficult was it for them, perhaps, in such conditions?

— The Italian authorities even issued a statement that they might not give them visas. But they just don't know that the athletes have been in Italy for a long time. We sent them there, and they were preparing with other Schengen visas.

These little dirty tricks have an effect, of course. Some countries will shit on us. We can only fight this with pressure and military cunning, which is what we are doing. Therefore, they performed under tremendous pressure, taking the third place after China and America, which included 70-80 athletes, and there were six of ours.

"We can go to the 2028 Summer Olympics as a full-fledged national team"

— In 2028, the Summer Olympics will be held in Los Angeles. What are our prospects? What kinds of sports and what kind of representative offices can there be?

— 42 sports in the program. 22 species begin selection in the summer. Now, in July, the points, places, and quotas for various sports have already gone. Basically, we have 22 problems so far, and we are discussing them with the MOCK. The difficulties relate to team sports such as volleyball and basketball. In the rest, everyone will start to be selected.

For each type, our program has been approved by an act of the Ministry, and we are moving on schedule. Plus, last year we signed a comprehensive training program for Los Angeles, together with the FMBA and RUSADA, our anti-doping agency. And we have all the trajectories clear. Therefore, my forecast is that we will approach Los Angeles as a full-fledged national team, if everything goes as we have planned and are doing now.

Maybe one or two team types will drop out, just because they don't have time to score points. But in this regard, in principle, there are reservations in the regulations. In emergency situations, you can also ask for a wild card. We will work on it. If it's really unfair that our strongest team, for example, won't go to basketball because of the non-admission. Therefore, we will work on everything.

— What forecasts can you give about the Winter Olympic Games in 2030 in France?

— We fight everywhere. It's more complicated there. We have defended our right in the ski federation, but in biathlon we are still deaf. The ice has broken in hockey. This was also our setup. The Hockey Federation is preparing for the trials. According to their rules, before the trial, you have to try your luck in the disciplinary committee, that is, inside the organization. As soon as we submitted, they immediately canceled all decisions on the non-admission of hockey players. But this does not automatically mean that they are allowed. A new governing body is now required to assemble and discuss, but there will be no such negative attitude.

We just met here on the sidelines with the head of the Athletics Federation, Peter Fradkov, who is my deputy at the Olympic Committee. The deal is this: if the World Athletics Council doesn't allow us to qualify for Los Angeles right now in July, then we're going to court. Everything is ready, our lawyers in Lausanne are already filing lawsuits, because this position, of course, is absolutely unacceptable in world athletics.

It is a reflection of the worldview, conclusions, complexes somewhere, probably, of the president of this organization, the British Lord Coe, who flatly says: "As long as there is a special operation in Ukraine, we will not allow anyone." What made him decide that? If other sports separate sport from politics and understand that the athlete is not responsible for the actions of the government, then in athletics there is such a Russophobic position. But we will break it through the courts.

"The new IOC President is determined to restore the integrity of world sport"

— How do you feel about the mood of world sports officials with the change of leadership in the IOC? How do you interact with your new supervisor now?

— It's fine.

— Do you feel the warming?

— We need to look at things. We see that the process is underway. It is impossible not to see in this a personal desire for normalization in world sports by the head of the entire world sport. Of course, there is a position. [IOC President Christie] Coventry is a one—time athlete herself, she's a two—time former minister. She's my counterpart from Zimbabwe.

She understands perfectly how everything works. In general, we know her attitude. And she is determined to restore the integrity of world sport. And what is integrity? When everyone participates, regardless of the political situation, money, wars, or anything else. Sport should unite, so we feel her approach.

We have constant contacts and diplomatic work on our part, so you can sit in Moscow and cry for the axe, as it was before. Calling athletes foreign agents, something else, threatening to drop bombs on someone. Well, that's wild. Such a thing cannot sound like it from a sports functionary, in principle.

First of all, we have changed our approach to communication with the world federations and sports authorities. Secondly, we started driving. And they come to us. An IOC member has just arrived.

We must take a pragmatic, peace-loving position. You don't have to use an axe in sports, it's stupid. There is no need to wish for the removal of other countries. We must exclusively preach what we stand for and what our president [Vladimir Putin] constantly talks about. Based on Olympic values. And this is an equal friendship and an opportunity for competition. The score is on the scoreboard, you're the champion. That's it.

"We hope that clubs will start to "sign" smart Russians and redistribute money"

— You have made a very important decision for the RPL.

— Yes, he restricted foreigners. For one.

— A decision that many people have been waiting for from you. But for some reason, some felt that this was a very cautious decision in terms of the number of legionnaires.

— Well, you don't have to cut off the shoulder here either. Even this decision led to an "earthquake." We've been listening to it all for years, recording it, looking at who ran where, what he wants from life in general. But in the end, we made a gradual decision in communication with the clubs.

One legionnaire will decrease from next season: seven on the field, no more. And we'll see in a year whether this will lead to clubs taking care of education, starting to "sign" guys, smart Russians, and redistributing money. Because that was my argument, which I expressed to them at all meetings: "Guys, you can't do that." The total budget of the RPL clubs is more than 120 billion, and seven Academies are allocated for youth sports. Not enough.

— Despite the fact that these clubs are largely funded by state-owned companies.

— Not only is there government money in these 120, there are more than 70, under 80. So you raise your children in Academies yourself. Why are we spending so little? We spend more, which means we can reach more children, go to competitions more, train them, provide them with medicine, study, and help their parents in the end. This is also important.

— How do clubs and sponsors react?

— With difficulty. When we realized that this was inevitable, we had a dialogue. We will continue to communicate throughout the year, and I respect all clubs, management, and sponsors. This is a separate world, the genre of football, it is the most media-intensive, the most capital-intensive. But the course of the state can be indicated through the regulatory effect on the number of foreign players on the field.

— Will there be any further changes in the limits in the future?

"Maybe." I'm telling you, we'll be back in a year. While it was eight, it became seven. And it's indefinite. We'll see if there will be more steps up to 6.5. Maybe they'll ask for it themselves.