The London Olympics can help Russia improve diplomatic relations
with Britain following several disputes, a Russian Olympic
Committee leader said Thursday.
Relations between the two countries soured after the 2006 death
of dissident ex-Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko in
London, with Russia refusing repeated British requests for the
extradition of the chief suspect.
Litvinenko made a deathbed statement accusing Russian leader
Vladimir Putin of authorizing his killing.
And at the British Parliament this week, former Foreign Office
minister Denis MacShane urged the current government to tell Prime
Minister Putin he is not welcome at the opening ceremony of the
Olympics on July 27.
”We expect him in London,” Russian Olympic Committee Vice
President Akhmed Bilalov told reporters in London on Thursday
before adding with a smile: ”If the British members of parliament
don’t mind it of course.”
”The Moscow Olympics Games and Los Angeles Olympic Games were a
big disappointment for athletes, for the people because it was
politics not sport,” Bilalov, a deputy in the Legislative Assembly
of Krasnodar Region, added at a reception hosted by the Russia’s
Ambassador to Britain.
The frosty relations between London and Moscow led to more than
four years without Putin holding talks with any British official
until Prime Minister David Cameron visited Moscow in September.
Bilalov said the visit of Putin to Britain for the Olympics can
”can bring together (the) countries.”
Putin, who was president from 2000-2008, is expected to return
to that position by the time of the Olympics with an election on
March 4.
But Labour Party legislator MacShane, a critic of Russia’s human
rights record, said on Wednesday that Putin will use the London
Olympics and the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia two years later
”as events for self-promotion.”
”Britain should say that he is not welcome at the opening
ceremonies of the London Olympics,” MacShane said.
During the July 27-Aug. 12 London Olympics, the Russian Olympic
Committee will be based on a site adjacent to Kensington Palace,
which will be the London residence of the Duke and Duchess of
Cambridge from 2013.
Perks Field, used by the royal family as a soccer field and a
helicopter landing pad, will become ”Team Russia Park”, hosting
entertainment, sports stars and hospitality facilities – but no
alcohol.
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