Coventry, who became IOC president last year, sent an official letter of congratulations ahead of the “Russia, Country of Sports” international forum, held in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk from October 21 to 23.
The letter was made public not by the IOC but by Degtyarev himself, who posted the news on his Telegram channel in early October and quoted the IOC leader as wishing the event success.
“International Olympic Committee President Kirsty Coventry, in a letter addressed to me, wished us success in hosting the ‘Russia, A Sporting Nation’ forum in Krasnoyarsk,” Degtyarev wrote in the post, as translated by Ukrainian outlet ua.news. “This is important to us. Russia remains one of the world’s leading sports nations, despite the restrictions.”
The IOC has declined to confirm the letter, release its text or respond to media requests for comment.
A minister still under Western sanctions
Degtyarev holds two of the most senior sports posts in Russia at once: Minister of Sport since May 2024 and president of the Russian Olympic Committee since December 2024.
He remains sanctioned by the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Ukraine for his role in supporting the war against Ukraine. The European Union delisted him in March 2025 as part of a renewal compromise brokered by Hungary, and Switzerland followed within a week, according to Russian independent outlet The Insider.
Washington’s designation, issued in February 2023, cited his involvement in the administration of occupied Ukrainian territories and his calls for Russian citizens to join the fighting.
The Krasnoyarsk forum
The three-day event drew delegations from more than 50 countries, according to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s secretariat, which took part. Programmed sessions covered sports branding, the use of artificial intelligence in sports management and future Olympic strategy.
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Ukrainian reporting on the forum noted that participants also included Russian servicemen who had fought in Ukraine, Russian officials under international sanctions and representatives of Russian occupation authorities in Ukrainian regions.
‘Useful idiots’
In a column published on the opening day of the forum, veteran Olympic journalist Duncan Mackay accused Russia of making the IOC look like “useful idiots”. He argued that the IOC’s provisional reinstatement of the Russian Olympic Committee in July had handed Degtyarev a propaganda victory he is now openly celebrating.
Mackay pointed in particular to a boast the Russian minister reportedly made to Vladimir Putin: “Europeans have been trapped: they are obliged to admit both Russian and Belarusian athletes.”
Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych, whom the IOC disqualified from the Milan-Cortina Winter Games in February for wearing a helmet honoring Ukrainian athletes killed in the war, told Mackay that the correspondence “casts such a shadow over the Olympic Movement and destroys the entire peace-making mission of the IOC.”
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From July’s reinstatement to October’s letter
The IOC provisionally lifted its suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee on July 7, clearing a path for Russian athletes to return to international competition and, potentially, to the Los Angeles 2028 Games. The ROC had been suspended since October 2023 after absorbing regional Olympic councils in the four Ukrainian regions Russia claims to have annexed.
Coventry defended the July decision by arguing that athletes should not be made to pay the price for their government’s actions.
Degtyarev has since told reporters he is “99 percent sure” Russian athletes will march in Los Angeles under their own flag. The practical obstacle he faces is personal: as US sanctions on him remain in force, he cannot legally enter the host country of the next Summer Games.
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