Russian rowers refused to perform at the European Championships

Russian rowers will not participate in the European Championships due to the requirement to sign an anti-Russian declaration. This was announced on May 13 by Alexey Svirin, President of the Russian Rowing Federation (FGSR).

"At the moment, we will not be able to perform in Kruswice. The Polish Rowing Association, as the organizer of the competition, has set additional conditions that we cannot accept," TASS quoted Svirin as saying.

According to him, the Russian side first reached an agreement with the international federation, approved all the conditions and sent an expanded list of Russian athletes. However, subsequently, the organizers of the European Championship from the Polish Rowing Association put forward an additional requirement — to fill out a special declaration. The document proposed to the Russian participants contained three points.

"First, to maintain neutrality. Secondly, the athlete must confirm that he does not receive government funding or funding from sponsors affiliated with the state. This is no longer possible. And the third point is that the athlete does not support or will not support the special military operation in Ukraine and, accordingly, the state policy of the head of state," Svirin said and added that after that the Russian national team decided not to participate in the tournament.

Mikhail Degtyarev, Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation and head of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), said on May 12 that Russia continues to make contributions to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), despite sanctions, so that Russian athletes can compete at the world level in the future. He noted that no country can develop national sports in isolation from the world, stressing that the Olympics and the World Championships remain key sporting events.