Russia set to return to international hockey after top sports court's ruling
on Google
The Court of Arbitration for Sport overruled the International Ice Hockey Federation's exclusion of Russian athletes from its tournaments as unlawful, in a ruling announced on Oct. 30.
Russia is increasingly returning to international sporting and cultural events, using them to whitewash its reputation on the world stage and distract from its war against Ukraine.
"The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) expresses its disappointment with the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to allow the Russian Ice Hockey Federation to enter a Russian Team in all IIHF Championships with immediate effect," reads a press statement from the IIHF.
"While the IIHF respects the authority of CAS and will act in accordance with its ruling, the outcome does not remove the concerns that informed its assessments," reads the statement.
In a press release, the CAS says that the IIHF cited safety and security concerns for barring Russian participation, but that for them "the evidence was insufficient."
"The Panel unanimously concluded that... only substantiated security concerns could outweigh athletes of a particular nationality to participate in competitions," reads the CAS statement.
The CAS ruling means that Russia will be able to participate in a sweep of forthcoming ice hockey tournaments in Canada, Czechia, the U.S., and Germany.
The EU is mulling ideas on how to restrict Russia's access to sporting events, and even a Russian visa ban to the bloc for anything other than necessary travel.
However, Lithuania's recent refusal to issue visas to Russian and Belarusian athletes led to it being stripped of the right to host a world pentathlon tournament.
The European Commission has expressed "regret" over decisions to allow Russia to return to world sports events, but has said it would respect the "autonomy" of sporting organizations.
With CAS serving as the supreme decision-maker in disputes between sports organizations, the Oct. 30 ruling raises the question of whether it sets a broader precedent that Europe will be unable to stop.
But CAS's own press release also mentions an Oct. 13 decision to maintain a ban on Russian participation in World Curling events, and it reads that all cases are assessed "on their individual merits."
