Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko has claimed the IOC have led the way to prevent his country competing in international sport ©The Kremlin

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko has blamed a conspiracy by a group of Anglo-Saxon countries for his country’s isolation from world sport.

Russia is suspended from competing by most International Federations following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), under its President Thomas Bach, is currently seeking to establish a framework which would allow athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus to qualify for Paris 2024, but is facing fierce criticism from several countries over the plan.

That has not stopped Chernyshenko claiming that the IOC are at the forefront of the campaign to prevent Russia competing internationally.

"We saw how, at the behest of the Anglo-Saxons, all international organisations, starting with the IOC, began to put obstacles for the participation of our athletes in international sports competitions, and they continue to do so," Chernyshenko told the conference "We are together.Sport", according to Russia’s official state news agency TASS.

Historically, Anglo-Saxon group countries are English-speaking nations that share some cultural, economic, and political features, but which are also influenced by the Germanic peoples who invaded Britain in the fifth century.

They include United Kingdom, the United States, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

Dmitry Chernyshenko has refused to lay the blame for Russia's current ban from international sport on Moscow's invasion of Ukraine ©Getty Images
Dmitry Chernyshenko has refused to lay the blame for Russia's current ban from international sport on Moscow's invasion of Ukraine ©Getty Images

Chernyshenko vowed to work so that Russia can start competing again.

"The most important thing is to avoid the illusions that autarky creates," he said, TASS reported.

"The goal of our enemies is to drive us inside ourselves so that we live in our autarchy, in our illusions that we are doing well.

"Only by competing and competing with the best can we provide progress."

Chernyshenko also claimed that resentment of Russia begun after the 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Sochi.

Officially, Russia finished top of the overall Olympic medals table for the first time since Lillehammer 1994, narrowly pipping Norway with 30 medals, including 11 gold, despite the emergence afterwards of a state-sponsored doping scheme.

As a result of the scandal and investigation, a full Russian team has not competed under its own flag at the Olympics since Sochi 2014.

Dmitry Chernyshenko, the former President and chief executive of Sochi 2014, has claimed that jealousy of Russia started after those Winter Olympics, even though their performances were tainted by a state-sponsored doping programme ©Getty Images
Dmitry Chernyshenko, the former President and chief executive of Sochi 2014, has claimed that jealousy of Russia started after those Winter Olympics, even though their performances were tainted by a state-sponsored doping programme ©Getty Images

But Chernyshenko, the President and chief executive of Sochi 2014, refuses to accept the overwhelming evidence that the results were tainted.

"We faced double standards in the field of sports at international competitions after the overwhelming success in Sochi for everyone, which they could not forgive us," he said.

"There was a lot of mythology, they tried to make us a country that built its victories on doping.

"There were a lot of lies, fraud and traditional methods which are used by countries unfriendly to us."