Russia names sanctioned sports minister as Olympics chief

Russia named a sports minister sanctioned by the West as its new Olympics chief on Friday, as Moscow faces isolation from international sport over its Ukraine offensive.

Mikhail Degtyaryov, a member of the right-wing Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, was elected head of the Russian Olympic Committee unopposed after previous president Stanislav Pozdnyakov unexpectedly resigned in October, the committee said.

Russian sport has faced a myriad of crises in recent years, with a state-sponsored doping scandal seeing the country stripped of dozens of Olympic medals and its athletes banned from taking part in the Paris Games this summer over the Ukraine conflict.

Moscow intensified its rhetoric against the International Olympic Committee (IOC) ahead of the Games, accusing the sporting body of “neo-Nazism” and vowing to hold its own “Friendship Games” to rival those held in the French capital.

Those plans were postponed several times until Russian President Vladimir Putin announced earlier this month they would be shelved indefinitely.

Just 15 Russian athletes were permitted to attend the Paris Olympics this summer, competing as neutrals. 

“Today, Russian sport is facing unprecedented external pressure. Thousands of our athletes are being discriminated against,” Degtyaryov was quoted by the committee as saying in a speech ahead of his election.

“It is time for us to stop the aggressive rhetoric against our international colleagues.

“Many of them, including members of the IOC, have realised that global sport without Russia does not work. During numerous unofficial contacts, they explicitly say that they want Russia to return to the international Olympic movement.” 

Putin’s ‘favourite’

Described as a favourite of Putin by the team of late opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Degtyaryov has been a vehement supporter of Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine. 

The 43-year-old was appointed sports minister by Putin in May 2024, despite not being a member of the ruling United Russia party.

In 2014, he was sanctioned by the European Union over his support for separatist rebels in east Ukraine, and in 2023 was blacklisted by the United States for helping conscript Russian citizens to fight Kyiv.

From 2020 until this year Degtyaryov served as governor of the Far Eastern Khabarovsk region, where he was tapped by Putin to replace popular governor Sergei Furgal after his controversial removal.

In 2022, he said he would gladly volunteer to fight in Ukraine but was unable to because he was a serving governor.

Residents of the region responded by creating a petition proposing to remove him from the post, clocking up tens of thousands of signatures.

Degtyaryov served as a lawmaker in the State Duma from 2011 to 2020, floating a number of outlandish proposals including changing the colours of the Russian flag to the former imperial black, yellow and white.

In 2013, he ran for Moscow Mayor, suggesting in an interview with the Izvestia newspaper that he would allow gay pride parades provided they were held “quietly” and “at night”.