Szijjarto declared the unacceptability of mixing sports with politics

Hungary has always opposed the politicization of sports and that is why it blocks the European Union (EU) sanctions against the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC). This was announced on March 26 by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.

He noted that Hungary remembers well how the country's athletes suffered from politicization during the boycott of the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles by socialist countries in 1984.

"Mixing sports and geopolitical conflicts is unacceptable for Hungarians. <...> That's why we previously prevented the Russian Olympic Committee and Russian sports clubs from being included in the EU sanctions list," Szijjarto wrote on Facebook (the social network belongs to Meta, a company whose activities are recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation).

The minister also noted that Budapest hosted Russian athletes at its home World Short Course Swimming Championships in December 2024 and is waiting for them at the Fencing World Cup in the last days of March.

"Sport should not be used to escalate conflicts, but to resolve them and restore peace between countries," the Hungarian Foreign Minister stressed.

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Earlier, on March 14, Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev thanked Hungary for consistently defending Olympic values. He noted that sport is an important channel of diplomacy designed to unite people, not divide them.

On December 16, Szijjarto announced that Hungary had succeeded in getting the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and two Russian football clubs excluded from the 15th package of European Union (EU) sanctions. Later, when discussing the 16th package of EU sanctions in February, Budapest also refused to support restrictions against sports organizations.