- Alexandra Xanthaki’s advice to IOC for Paris 2024 sparks outrage
- ‘I don’t think that it makes sense to exclude all Russian military’
A United Nations expert advising the International Olympic Committee has provoked outrage by claiming that Russian soldiers who have fought in Ukraine should be allowed to compete at the Paris 2024 Games – as long as they have not committed war crimes.
Alexandra Xanthaki, the UN special rapporteur for cultural rights, angered Ukrainian athletes on an IOC-hosted call by saying that only Russians directly implicated in crimes against humanity or propaganda for war should be barred from international sport.
