The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) has filed an appeal against the decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to suspend its membership.
The Russian Olympic Committee was banned with immediate effect on Oct 12 for recognising regional organisations from four territories annexed from Ukraine, the International Olympic Committee said.
The IOC added the ROC would not be eligible for any funding after it recognised Olympic Councils from the regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia but that it would not affect any Russian athletes competing as neutrals.
Russian president Vladamir Putin later accused the IOC of using the Games as a political tool.
“Thanks to some of the leaders of the modern International Olympic Committee, we learned that an invitation to the Games is not an unconditional right of the best athletes, but a kind of privilege, and can be earned not by sporting results, but by political gestures that have nothing to do with sport at all,” he said.
“And that the Games themselves can be used as an instrument of political pressure against people who have nothing to do with politics. And as gross, and in fact racist, ethnic discrimination.”
The Court of Arbitration for Sport said the arbitration proceedings have started.
