This year, the online semi-final of the annual case championship took place on March 7th. And it was organised, but only without the participation of Russian students. Members of the team, as well as the leadership of the team faculty, consider this accident a gross violation of principles of the Olympic movement made by representatives of this movement themselves. According to the Olympic Charter, the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms of this charter must be ensured without discrimination of any kind, such as race, colour, sex , sexual orientation, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Equality is the key value of the Olympic Movement.

We understand the complexity of current political situation, but we do not consider it possible to use politics as a tool to limit the rights of students to participate in international EDUCATIONAL projects. The organizers refer to the recommendation of the executive committee, adopted on February 28. The decision which was made, as stated in the letter, is the only possible option to “protect the event and the fair competition of its participants”. How can participation of the students team from the Russian univercity affect the fairness of the event, if we, like everyone else, passed the selection and followed the rules?
(https://olympics.com/ioc/olympic-studies-centre/international-olympic-case-study-competition)

In addition, we do not consider it fully correct to refer to these recommendations, since they do not contain any orders to ban the participation of Russian citizens in educational projects and intellectual competitions related to Olympism: “the IOC EB recommends that International Sports Federations and sports event organizers not invite or allow the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials in international competitions”.

The charter states that one of the goals of the Olympic Movement is to “act against any form of discrimination”. And instead of respecting this principle, representatives of the IOC themselves discriminate against ambitious, enthusiastic students only because of indirect political reasons.

The IOC President asks our government: “Give peace a chance”.
And we will answer: “Give us a chance”.