Third of Lithuanians support allowing Russian, Belarusian athletes to compete in Olympics

Almost a third of Lithuanian residents support the decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to allow individual Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in the Paris Olympics as neutrals, a poll commissioned by the LRT public broadcaster finds.

Among those polled by Baltijos Tyrimai, 5% of respondents welcomed the IOC’s move, while 25% said they held a rather favourable opinion of it. Most often these were people with degrees, professionals and civil servants.

Meanwhile, more than half of the respondents (56%) disapproved of allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete in the Olympic Games, lrt.lt news website reports. These respondents were mostly under 50 years of age and living in cities and larger towns.

Around 14% of the respondents did not have an opinion on the matter.

“As the survey shows, the only group of respondents who evaluate the IOC's decision more favourably than unfavourably are non-Lithuanians (46% favourably and 38% unfavourably), while all other demographic and social groups view the IOC’s intention to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to participate in the Olympic Games with a neutral status more unfavourably than favourably,” the news website writes.