Norway to ban Russian athletes from participating in competitions on its territory

The Norwegian government announced on Thursday, November 12, that it would ban Russian and Belarusian professional athletes from coming to Norway to participate in competitions, a few hours after Finland announced a similar measure. He made it clear that he intended to prevent athletes from these countries from coming to Norway as long as the war in Ukraine continued.

In a statement, the government noted that recent "relaxations introduced by international sports federations" meant that more athletes and technical teams from these two countries may want to travel to the Scandinavian country. “Norway already has a restrictive visa practice for Russian and Belarusian citizens, but it is now further tightening the criteria for those who are allowed to travel to the country,” Justice and Public Security Minister Astri Aas-Hansen was quoted as saying in a statement.

The Norwegian executive said it would instruct immigration services and police to "refuse entry to Russian and Belarusian professional athletes and members of their teams (...) if they come to Norway to participate in sports competitions." These changes will come into force “soon”, the government said. Russian high-level sport maintains close ties with the authorities and therefore cannot be "considered independently" of the war in Ukraine, the press release underlines.