The Russian Ambassador called the refusal of visas to gymnasts an attempt to weaken the national team
Russian Ambassador to the Netherlands Vladimir Tarabrin believes that the non-issuance of visas for the World Gymnastics Championship showed that the Dutch authorities “cannot trust the organization of international tournaments”
The refusal of the Dutch authorities to issue visas to Russian athletes is a deliberate attempt to weaken the Russian team at the World Gymnastics Championship. This was stated by TASS Russian Ambassador to the Kingdom Vladimir Tarabrin.
“By deliberately denying visas to our strongest athletes to participate in the World Gymnastics Championship, the Dutch authorities have once again demonstrated a complete disregard for one of the fundamental principles of world sport – fair play or fair play.” There is a deliberate attempt to weaken our team in a politico-bureaucratic way, he said.
Tabarin noted that the non-issuance of visas at the World Cup showed that the Netherlands “cannot be trusted to organize international tournaments.”.
On October 13, the Netherlands refused to issue visas to Angelina Melnikova, Victoria Listunova and Anna Kalmykova. The Russian Gymnastics Federation said that the reason for the refusal was “a threat to international relations.”.
Melnikova called the non-issuance of visas “inhumane” attitude. “The more we were selected officially through the European Championships. We are not just asking for competitions, we have an official ticket, which we earned, she added.
The World Cup will be held in Rotterdam from 17 to 25 October. The tournament will be played tickets to the Olympic Games 2028 in Los Angeles. The three best men's and three best women's teams will receive Olympic quotas.
