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The President made this statement while answering journalists’ questions at the end of a meeting dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the establishment of arbitration tribunals.

In his view, this was due to a change of leadership in the International Olympic Committee. The new IOC management made a bad first move, the President noted. He also believed excessive commercialisation played a role because it clashed with the principles of the Olympic movement. He recalled how Moscow and St Petersburg were touted before his own eyes as possible sites for the Olympics. Behind-the-scenes intrigue involved in this sort of decisions, the President said, was not helping the Olympic movement.

One cannot be perfectly versed in all sports, but some things, to put it mildly, leave one surprised, the President remarked about unfair refereering at the Olympics. He further noted that such facts should be cited not only with regard to the Russian national team, but also with respect to other athletes. As an example he mentioned a South Korean sportsman who was stripped of his gold medal for no plausible reason at all.

He also found it surprising that all ice hockey competitions at the current Olympic Games in the US were judged only by NHL referees. President Putin said he could not understand the logic of such a decision, because national teams, not transnational clubs, played at the Olympics. In such a situation, in the President’s view, North American athletes received a clear advantage.

The President censured the Russian Olympic Committee and its representatives at the IOC for their passive attitude at the Winter Games. Representatives of other countries whose athletes were not so much affected by biased judgments nevertheless took a more active stance, he said.

President Putin expressed hope that the IOC would deal with these problems.