Russian Sports MinisterMikhail Degtyaryov was named the countrys new Olympics chief, authorities announced Friday.Degtyaryov, a member of the conservative Liberal Democratic Party, was chosen head of the Russian Olympic Committee after its previous president Stanislav Pozdnyakov unexpectedly resigned in October.Russian sport has faced a myriad of crises in recent years, with a state-sponsored doping scandal seeing the nation removed of lots of Olympic medals and its professional athletes prohibited from participating in the Paris Games this summer over the war in Ukraine.Moscow blasted the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ahead of the Games, implicating the sporting body of neo-Nazism and vowing to hold its own Friendship Games to match those kept in the French capital.Those plans were held off several times up until Russian President Vladimir Putin announced earlier this month they would be shelved indefinitely.Just 15 Russian athletes were permitted to participate in the Paris Olympics this summer, contending as neutrals.
Today, Russian sport is facing unmatched external pressure.
Thousands of our professional athletes are being discriminated against, Degtyaryov was priced quote by the committee as stating in a speech ahead of his election.
It is time for us to stop the aggressive rhetoric versus our global colleagues.
Described as a favorite of Putin by the group of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Degtyaryov has actually been a vehement advocate of Moscows war against Ukraine.The 43-year-old was designated sports minister by Putin in May.
In 2014, he was sanctioned by the EU over his assistance for separatist rebels in east Ukraine, and in 2023, he was blacklisted by the United States for assisting conscript Russian people to eliminate Kyiv.From 2020 up until this year Degtyaryov acted as governor of the Far Eastern Khabarovsk region, where he was tapped by Putin to change popular governor Sergei Furgal after his controversial removal.Degtyaryov acted as a legislator in the State Duma from 2011 to 2020, drifting a number of over-the-top propositions consisting of changing the colors of the Russian flag to the former royal black, yellow and white.In 2013, he ran for Moscow Mayor, recommending in an interview with the Izvestia paper that he would enable gay pride parades offered they were held silently and at night.