Famous Russian journalist Alexei Andronov openly supported the decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes under a neutral flag to the Olympics-2024, which will be held in Paris.
"I think I don't need to explain my position too much - everyone already knows it. But if suddenly...
I am a categorical opponent of sanctions in the sports system. Collective and linear sanctions. Of course, there can be no talk about the presence of Russian national teams anywhere, anywhere, anywhere now.
Lobanovsky liked to say: there is no such thing as collective responsibility, only irresponsibility can be collective.
Individual athletes (even, let's say, tennis pairs) are individual athletes. Each case must be dealt with privately.
I am opposed to the "only traitors go without the anthem and flag" hysteria that the federal sports channel is actively peddling. Where were you when the hockey tournament at the 2018 Olympics was won without the anthem and flag? Cheap cutthroats, do you want to (just to your face) call Datsyuk, Kovalchuk, Znark or, for example, Roman Rotenberg traitors?
Someone who chose politics and war over sports (or over sports) is not going anywhere. Z-Kuliak, for example. Or Karjakin. These are the traitors. Traitors to their cause, to their sport, to their sporting community. They have no place in it. And, by the way, this rubbish doesn't exist in my world either. And neither are the hysterical loudmouths, who are becoming more and more numerous among my colleagues, or rather "colleagues".
But Daniil Medvedev is not a traitor, let that Teryushkov and his cohorts choke on their poisonous saliva!
He is a tennis player! And if he did not betray the sport, did not interfere in it unnecessary - he must play. And he will play. Even if someone doesn't shake his hand.
That's the way it should be! And the IOC is absolutely right in its humanistic approach.
Ruin - it is not in the closets. It is in the head," Andronov wrote in his Telegram channel.