The International Fencing Federation (FIE) decided not to allow a number of star Russian sportswomen to participate in high-level competitions.

 This was stated by the President of the Russian Fencing Federation, Ilhar Mamedov, TASS reports.

 Fencers Sofya Pozdniakova, Sofya Velikaya, Olga Nikitina, Yana Yehoryan and other Russian women will not be able to compete in the international arena. FIE also banned world and European champions Veniamin Reshetnikov and Kamil Ibrahimov.

 "The FIE sent us a list of saber athletes that they can admit to international starts, there are no names known to the world on it. Neither Pozdniakova, Velikaya, Yehoryan, Nikitina, Ibrahimov, Reshetnikov, nor many other promising strong athletes", - complained the official of the aggressor country.

 In early March, the International Fencing Federation allowed Russians and Belarusians to return to performances in April. Now the fencers of the Russian Federation and Belarus will be able to qualify for the Olympics. However, a number of countries have already refused to hold fencing competitions.

 Later, more than three hundred fencers from European countries, Brazil, Mexico, the USA, Japan and other countries reprimanded the officials for refusing to take into account the opinions of athletes in the decision-making process. In this way, they supported the Ukrainian Federation, which twice tried to block the return of the aggressor country.

 By the way, earlier Norway joined the boycott of fencing competitions with Russians and Belarusians.