OREANDA-NEWS. President of the Olympic Committee of Russia (OCR) Stanislav Pozdnyakov said that Russian athletes will not participate at the Tokyo Games under a neutral flag.

“There can be no talk of a neutral flag. If you carefully study the Olympic Charter, you can find the appropriate section that clearly regulates issues with a flag, anthem, and so on,” Pozdnyakov stated.

In 2018, the Russian national team took part at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang under the neutral flag due to the temporary suspension of OCR. According to Pozdnyakov, in the summer of 2020 in Tokyo, the situation can not be repeated.

“OCR has no problems. The Russian team will take part in the Games. OAR (Olympic athletes from Russia) were in Pyeongchang, because OCR was temporarily suspended. Now OCR will form a team on its own,” the head of the Russian Olympic Committee said.

Last week, the Compliance Review Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) recommended that the Executive Committee deprive the Russian Anti-Doping Agency of compliance status. It explained this decision by manipulating the data of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory.

The WADA Executive Committee received a recommendation to remove Russia from participating in international competitions for the next four years. The decision on possible sanctions will be taken at a meeting of the Committee, which will be held in Paris on December 9.

The WADA Committee considers it possible for Russian athletes to participate the 2020 Olympics in neutral status, without using the national flag and anthem. Russia may also lose the right to host international sports tournaments for four years.

The International Olympic Committee advocated for providing Russian athletes with the opportunity to participate in the Games. The organization’s statement said that the responsibility for manipulating data from the Moscow laboratory rests with the Russian authorities, but not the athletes.