Putin to hold on-line meeting next week with Russian Olympians bound for 2022 Olympics

MOSCOW, January 18. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold an online meeting on January 25 with the Olympians of the national team before their travel for the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday. Stanislav Pozdnyakov, the president of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), disclosed to TASS earlier in the day that a meeting of the national Olympic team with Putin "is scheduled for January 25 in the online format." Speaking at a press briefing in Moscow today, Peskov said: "Yes it is true that the president will hold a meeting with the Russian Olympic team in one format or another." "However, considering China’s strict regulations regarding all arriving participants of sports tournaments and taking into account the recent situation with Omicron, this meeting is likely to be held in the online format," Peskov stated. The Russian presidential spokesman also confirmed to journalists that the online meeting of Putin with the national team of Russian Olympians, bound for the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing, was scheduled for January 25. Anti-COVID-19 measures were stepped up recently in view of the global surge of cases regarding the newly-registered strain of the novel coronavirus, Omicron. On November 26, the World Health Organization (WHO) designated B.1.1.529 as a "Variant of Concern" and assigned it the Greek letter Omicron. It also said that the new variant has "a large number of mutations, some of which are concerning." Cases of infections with the new strain of the novel coronavirus have been already registered in the majority of countries. The Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games announced to TASS on October 4 that athletes inoculated with Russian-made anti-COVID-19 vaccines would be allowed to participate in the 2022 Winter Games. Russia has so far registered five COVID-19 vaccines. They are Sputnik V and Sputnik Light developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology, EpiVacCorona and EpiVacCorona-N created by the Vector State Research Center of Virology and Biotechnology and CoviVac from the Chumakov Federal Scientific Center for Research and Development of Immune and Biological Products. Sputnik V, EpiVacCorona, EpiVacCorona-N and CoviVac are two-dose shots, while Sputnik Light is a single-dose vaccine. Beijing’s 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games The 2022 Winter Olympic Games in the Chinese capital of Beijing are scheduled to be held from February 4-20, while the Paralympic Winter Games will be held on March 4-13. During the 128th IOC session in Kuala Lumpur on July 31, 2015, Beijing was chosen to host the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games making the Chinese capital the first city ever to host both the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games (in 2008) as well as the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games (in 2022). Beijing won the right to host the 2022 Olympics and Paralympics in a tight race, beating Kazakhstan’s Almaty in 2015, by chalking up 44 votes against its rival’s 40. Read more