Russians protest athletes' treatment

Even President Putin weighs in on the controversy.

Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 23, 2002

MOSCOW -- Russian president Vladimir Putin wants his country's athletes to stay through the end of the Olympics. That does not mean he, or any of his countrymen, are happy with the way they are being treated.

Russians have protested the disqualification of star cross-country skier Larissa Lazutina after a blood test and the judging at the women's figure skating final. American Sarah Hughes jumped from fourth to first in the free skate, and Russian Irina Slutskaya finished second.

"Now that subjective judging has harmed us, we want the same for Slutskaya," said Viktor Mamatov, head of the Russian delegation.

The International Skating Union denied the Slutskaya protest.

"North American athletes receive a clear advantage," Putin said. "Let us see how the Olympic Games end. Let us hope that the IOC leadership will manage to solve these difficulties."

Putin was not the only one chiming in. By a 417-0 vote, the lower house of Russia's parliament passed a resolution calling on Russian athletes to boycott Sunday's Closing Ceremony unless officials rerun the cross-country relay, bar North American referees from Friday's hockey game between the United States and Russia and apologize to the Russian team.

Russian Olympic Committee chief Leonid Tyagachev said the Russians decided to stay out of respect for the hockey players, who lost to the United States 3-2.

The skating and cross-country protests were the latest in a series of Olympic results that Russians have interpreted as part of a Cold War-style campaign.

In a high-profile dispute at the start of the Games, Russia's Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze won the figure skating pairs competition but shared the gold with Canada's Jamie Sale and David Pelletier because of a judge's misconduct.

Putin criticized what he called the "excessive commercialization of the Olympic movement," U.S. media bias and the decision to use only referees from the National Hockey League at Olympic hockey matches.

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