One could be outraged by the decision of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in the Paralympics, which begin on Friday in Beijing, without having read the accompanying press release to the end.

Karl Quade, the chef de mission of the German Paralympics delegation, was deeply ashamed.

Perhaps he had previously read what the International Biathlon Union had said following its decision to ban Russian and Belarusian athletes from their competitions: The IBU confirmed the death of Yevhen Malyshev, a junior biathlete.

Born in 2002, died at the age of 19 in a bombing near Kharkiv while defending his Ukrainian homeland against the Russian invaders.

The athletes killed so far in the war, one has to assume, will not be the last Ukrainian athletes Putin has on his conscience.

And yet, a few hours later, it became clear that Andrew Parsons, the IPC's president, and his board members are stepping through the barn door opened to them by the International Olympic Committee on Monday to allow Russians and Belarusians to attend the Beijing Games.

Point two of that decision by the IOC executive read on Monday as if it had been written for the Paralympics: Russians and Belarusians should actually be prevented from participating in sports competitions.

But when time is of the essence, care must be taken that they do not start as Russians and Belarusians.

And that's exactly what the IPC decided - with reference to the fact that this is really the toughest sanction that their own rules allow.

And garnished with the decisions to pin down the Olympic medals from the Russian sports policy personnel from Putin to the Paralympics organizers in Sochi, analogous to the IOC.

At the press conference followed by the IPC in Beijing on Wednesday evening, Parsons offered condolences to Yevhen Malyshev's parents.

Russia is the "aggressor".

Sheer disregard for the Ukrainian victims

However, the terms war, invasion and raid are not used in the IPC press release.

Instead, recourse to the "gross violation" of the "Olympic truce".

A term that is used here, in the intended but not expressed connection with Putin's military murders, to cover up Russian crimes in terms of sports politics.

Jitske Visser, Chair of the IPC Athletes Council, goes even further.

There have been different views among the approximately 650 athletes in Beijing “since the beginning of this crisis” – Visser actually uses: crisis.

Not: war - and it is their task to summarize these views.

And: "I hope that now that there is a decision, we can focus on sport again, because our hosts and many athletes have been preparing for it for a number of years."

Apart from the fact that it would hardly have sounded any different from the Russian Ministry of Sport, apart from the sheer disregard for the Ukrainian victims of the war, which is expressed in it: Parsons, Visser, the entire IPC are making sure with their decision that nobody at these Paralympics can concentrate solely on the sport.