“There is no place for collective punishment in sport either”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó told public media on Tuesday in Moscow following a meeting with Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov.
“The principle of collective punishment leads to nothing good, and accordingly Hungary is on principle against is against the fact that if athletes from a certain country are proven to have used doping, then all athletes from the given country should be banned as a result”, Mr. Szijjártó said.
The Minister said that in his view this is unacceptable and such cases must be judges on an individual bases. Accordingly, “we regard the collective punishment of Russian athletes as unacceptable and immoral”, he said.
“Why should athletes who have never ever touched banned substances have to suffer because some of their compatriots have?” the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó asked.
“Russia is a sports superpower and is home to 500 major sports events every year, at which over a thousand Hungarian athletes have also taken part so far this year”, he added. “Accordingly, Hungarian-Russian sports cooperation is also highly important, as are partner relations between our Olympic committees”, Mr. Szijjártó said in closing.
(MTI)
