Dmitry Peskov, official spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, revealed that Moscow was formulating its position after the IOC recommended that the country’s athletes would only be considered for readmission to international sport if they adhere to strict conditions of neutrality.

These include not having publicly supported the invasion of Ukraine or being contracted to the Russian or Belarusian militaries or national security agencies.

"As for the recommendations of the IOC, they are now being analysed, our approaches and our position are being developed," said Peskov in a report by Russia’s official state news agency TASS.

His comments came on the same day the ROC Athletes’ Commission issued a strongly-worded statement, attacking the IOC’s stance.

Russian athletes have been largely frozen out of international sport for more than a year after the IOC recommended that sporting organisations impose a ban on participation in response to the escalation of the war in Ukraine in February 2022.

The IOC Executive Board ruled last month to loosen restrictions, recommending that competitors from Russia should be allowed to return to the global sporting stage but only as individual neutral athletes, with flags and anthems remaining banned and national teams also prohibited.

It has also been suggested that athletes would need to sign a declaration of neutrality but would not be asked to say they are against the war in Ukraine.

Since the IOC announced its recommendations in late March, the ROC Athletes’ Commission said it had held a series of consultations with the Russian sports community to form its "common position".

"We regard the criteria put forward for admission to competitions as excessive, unreasonable and discriminatory: by nationality and passport, by discipline and sport, as well as by belonging to one or another structure that has been developing sports for decades in many post-Soviet states," a statement from the ROC Athletes’ Commission read.

"A similar system of support for athletes has long been widely used in many countries, but in this case, the reason for non-admission is only in relation to citizens of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus.

"Depriving athletes of national self-identification, the opportunity to compete in team and group disciplines, as well as sanctions for having an agreement with a sports society that gives labour guarantees according to the laws of their country, are gross violations of the principle of equality, which is fundamental not only in Olympism, but also in humanitarian, universal sense, in international law."

The ROC Athletes’ Commission, led by 2004 Olympic men’s 800 metres gold medallist Yuriy Borzakovskiy, argued that its athletes were "increasingly becoming hostages of political games" that, it claimed, was leading to a "split" in the international sports community.

"In our opinion, a dangerous precedent has been set in which no athlete in the world can henceforth be sure that his civil rights will be properly respected, and all decisions are made in strict accordance with the law and the Olympic Charter - without exceptions," the statement added.

"Russian athletes have always and in everything relied on the Olympic Charter, on the values of Olympism and the unity of the Olympic family.

"Today we are forced to live and work according to new rules, to undergo humiliating sorting under discriminatory conditions.

"This is actively promoted by individual states and speakers who openly blackmail the IOC with their radical statements and actions."

The IOC’s easing of restrictions has resulted in a backlash in Europe, with Ukrainian Government announcing that athletes from its country will boycott qualifying events for next year’s Olympics in Paris where there are Russians and Belarusian competing.

The ROC Athletes’ Commission claimed that there had been "sometimes openly Russophobic actions" and appealed to the leadership of the IOC for what it described as "abandonment of discriminatory practices".

"We are convinced that the admission of Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in international competitions should be implemented only on the basis of equality with all other participants in the Olympic movement, without additional conditions, prescriptions, restrictions and criteria that destroy the Olympic movement and devalue the letter and spirit of the Olympic Charter," the statement added.

IOC President Thomas Bach has claimed that the IOC had found "some middle ground" after saying that he had accused by Russia of being "agents of the United States" and by Ukraine of siding with Moscow.

He has also slammed Government opposition to the IOC’s stance as "deplorable".

insidethegames has contacted the IOC for comment in response to the ROC Athletes’ Commission’s statement.