"The rule that sport should be separated from politics is being ignored more and more often. An outrageous example is the denial of entry to the United States of FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who was going to take part in the opening ceremony of the Match for the World Chess Crown," stressed Lavrov.
On December 8, at the 23rd meeting of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Hamburg the Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov said that sport should be separated from politics. The head of the Ministry noted that a selective approach to initiatives of the member states is undermining the principles of dialogue and equality. This happened with two Russian projects: on media pluralism and the unacceptability of discrimination in sport.