The Russian Olympic Committee challenged the International Olympic Committee’s decision to suspend it last month for annexing some Ukrainian sports organizations at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The CAS indicated Monday that it had received the notice of challenge from the COR, but that it is “impossible to establish timetables” for its committee of judges to render a decision. A hearing is expected to take place in Lausanne, Switzerland, where the court and IOC headquarters are located.
The legal proceedings are expected to have no impact on the ability of Russian athletes to qualify and, possibly, compete in the Paris Olympics next summer.
The IOC has already mentioned that Russian athletes who will be admitted under a neutral banner to the Paris Games could receive approval from the international federation which oversees their sporting discipline, without having to go through the COR.
The most recent legal saga between Russia and the IOC was sparked by the NRC’s decision to annex the sports federations of four eastern regions of Ukraine.
The IOC recalled, by imposing the suspension on the COR last month, that the Russian decision “constitutes a violation of the Olympic Charter, because it violates the territorial integrity of the Ukrainian Olympic committee. »
The COR proceeded in a similar manner in 2016, when it annexed the sports organizations of Crimea, itself annexed to Russia two years earlier. The IOC did not impose any sanctions at that time.
The CAS mentioned on Monday that the Russian notice of protest requires that the COR be reinstated while “benefiting from all the rights and prerogatives granted by the Olympic Charter”.
This suspension prevents the COR from obtaining its share of revenues from Olympic broadcast agreements and sponsorship contracts, which amount to several million dollars for each Olympic cycle. Russian leaders are reportedly considering legal action to recover the amounts of money withheld due to economic sanctions imposed during the war in Ukraine.