Russian network TV threatens to boycott the Winter Olympics

Russian television networks will reportedly refuse to carry the 2018 Winter Olympics, if Russia’s national team is barred from competition. The media holding company VGTRK confirmed to TASS that it won’t broadcast the Winter Games, if the International Olympic Committee bans Russian athletes from participating under Russia’s flag.

According to the newspaper Vedomosti, the stations Pervyi Kanal and Match TV are also threatening to drop the Olympics.

This month, WADA ruled that Russia remains “non-compliant” with its code, leaving in place the suspension of Russia’s anti-doping agency (RUSADA). The judgment is likely to add more pressure on the International Olympic Committee to ban Russian athletes from the 2018 Winter Games. A final decision will be made in December.

In 2016, the International Olympic Committee only permitted Russian athletes to participate in the Rio de Janeiro Summer Games if they could show that they had not been doping before the competition. No other nationality faced these restrictions. Russia originally submitted 389 athletes, 278 of whom were ultimately cleared and 111 of whom were removed because of the doping scandal.