Swiss President Weli Maurer called for the Olympics in Sochi, which will be held from February 7 to 23, 2014, not to be politicized. As he told the Swiss news resource Blick , boycotting the Olympics for political reasons is the wrong decision, and in general sports should not be politicized.

Commenting on US President Barack Obama's refusal to travel to the Olympics, Maurer said that the United States can be ignored in the same way, since the death penalty is allowed there.

to attend the Sochi Olympics refused Earlier it became known that the heads of three states at once - Germany, France and the USA - . The presidents of Germany and France, Joachim Gauck and Francois Hollande, said that they were concerned about the violation of human rights in Russia, and therefore did not intend to attend the Olympics. It is known that both countries actively criticized the Russian “anti-gay” law, which prohibits gay propaganda and provides for criminal liability for it.

US President Barack Obama explained his refusal to go to the Olympics due to the density of his schedule. US Vice President Joe Biden will not go to Sochi either. This is the first Olympics since 1988 in which the American presidential delegation did not include the president, former president, vice president, or members of their families, notes The New York Times . Previously, Obama refused to announce a boycott of the Sochi Olympics, despite disagreements with the Russian leadership over the law on gay propaganda.

It is possible that such an “unmotivated” refusal of Obama to go to the Olympics may be connected with the “Snowden case.” In July, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham called on the authorities to boycott the Sochi Olympics. The Republican said that a boycott of the Olympics should be Russia's response to the granting of political asylum to American Edward Snowden.

Swiss President Maurer condemned the politicization of the Sochi Olympics