By Karolos Grohmann
PYLOS, Greece (Reuters) – The International Olympic Committee on Friday declined to comment on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s congratulatory note to newly-elected IOC president Kirsty Coventry, saying it was his prerogative.
Putin was among the first to congratulate Zimbabwe’s Coventry following her election victory on Thursday, saying her “unique experience” would ensure the movement’s advancement.
Russia’s Olympic Committee was suspended by the IOC in 2023, a year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Putin had also been the first world leader to call Coventry’s predecessor Thomas Bach minutes after his 2013 election, a few months before Russia hosted the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.
The Sochi Games were the most expensive summer or winter Games to date with a price tag of $51 billion and the first for Bach as IOC president.
“On congratulations, you cannot choose who congratulates you and when,” incumbent president Bach told a press conference.
Putin, in his message posted on the Kremlin website, said the outcome of Coventry’s election win “clearly testifies to your great authority in the sporting world”.
Moscow is eager to have its athletes fully reinstated in the Olympic Games after the country’s Olympic committee’s 2023 ban.
The IOC banned the ROC when it staged Olympic elections in four Ukrainian regions Russia occupied following the invasion.
A small number of athletes from Russia and Belarus, which allowed Russia to use its territory to launch the invasion, were permitted to take part in last year’s Paris Games as neutrals without any national flags or anthems.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko also congratulated Coventry on Thursday.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Ken Ferris)
