OREANDA-NEWS. The two main risks for the period of the 2022 Olympics in China are related to how the West presents China's strict rules regarding COVID-19 cases, as well as the situation around Ukraine. This opinion was expressed on Friday, January 28, in a conversation with Izvestiya by Andrei Ostrovsky, deputy director of the Institute of the Far East of the Russian Academy of Sciences, head of the Center for Socio-Economic Research of China.

“Now [in the West] there are a lot of publications that Chinese procedures for admitting people with coronavirus to the Olympics deprive the Olympics itself of meaning as such - it seems like a lottery is obtained, and many athletes cannot enter the Games due to a positive test. The fact is that in China there are such orders, but the propaganda complaints of the American press may well present this as the fact that the Chinese rules contradict the charter of the Olympic Games itself, ”the expert noted.

Ostrovsky also recalled the events of the summer of 2008 in South Ossetia, not ruling out that this time the Ukrainian Armed Forces could launch an attack on the Donbass.

“So the situation with Ukraine and, secondly, the situation with COVID-19 are two topics that show all the risks that exist during the Olympics,” the orientalist concluded.

As President Xi Jinping said on December 31, 2021, the Chinese authorities will do everything possible to “present the magnificent Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2022 to the world.” The Chinese leader also expressed hope that as many people as possible would take part in the Games.