MOSCOW – Russia will not send fencers to an Olympic qualifying event in Poland in April because of “unacceptable” conditions, the head of Russia’s fencing federation was quoted as saying on Sunday.

“Will Russian fencers take part in Poland? Of course not, it is unacceptable,” Ilgar Mamedov told RIA Novosti news agency, referring to the Women’s Foil World Cup due to start on April 21 in Poznan.

Poland’s fencing federation has said that in order to take part, Russian and Belarusian athletes would have to sign a statement saying they did not support Russia’s campaign in Ukraine.

The statement also states that the athletes “are not associated with the regime of (Russian President) Vladimir Putin” and “are not employed by Russian or Belarusian military or national security bodies”.

“These provocative conditions will not allow us to take part in this competition,” Mamedov told Russia’s Sport Express.

Athletes from Russia and Belarus have faced differing sanctions from a multitude of sports since Russia launched its assault on Ukraine in February 2022.

In March, the International Fencing Federation (FIE) allowed them to return to international competition, making fencing the first Olympic sport to reopen its events to athletes from Russia and ally Belarus. But it has meant little change.

The FIE decision generated outrage in Ukraine, a hard-hitting petition to uphold the ban and prompted several European countries to cancel planned events in protest.

France became the latest to do so on Friday when it called off May’s Challenge Monal. The French fencing federation said it was not able to honour FIE’s requests for Russian and Belarusian fencers.

Competitions have also been cancelled in Denmark and Germany. The Danish fencing federation said the situation was a “mess”.

Following the FIE ruling, more than 300 active and former fencers have written to ask International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach – who won Olympic team foil gold in 1976 – to continue the exclusion.

Excluded from other events, some of Russia’s Olympic hopefuls took part in a competition called the Friendship Cup in Kazan over the weekend, alongside athletes from Armenia, Serbia and Vietnam.

At the Kazan tournament, Russia’s fencers expressed their hopes of rejoining international competitions.

“I would love to go to the Games,” said Russia’s epee champion Aizanat Murtazaeva, 21. She was fourth at the delayed Tokyo Games in 2021 and would like to “come back with a medal” from Paris.

Anastasiia Rustamova, who won at the European junior championships aged 16 in February 2022, said she was also keen.

The IOC on Tuesday recommended the return to competition of Russian and Belarusian athletes as individual neutrals.

But they refused to give a timeline on their potential participation at Paris 2024.

The IOC said athletes “who actively support the war” would be banned, as well as “athletes who are contracted to the Russian or Belarusian military or national security agencies”.

Russian Olympic chiefs have branded the conditions “discriminatory”.

Moscow sports clubs CSKA and Dynamo – both linked to the Russian army – have been training grounds for some of the country’s best athletes for decades in a variety of disciplines.

They include two-time Olympic team sabre champion Sofya Velikaya, and Pavel Sukhov and Sergey Bida, who won silver in the men’s team epee at Tokyo 2020. AFP