Thomas Bach would like to see Russian athletes take part in the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024, regardless of whether Russian soldiers are still killing in Ukraine.
Surprised?
No, predictable.
The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes after Vladimir Putin's recent attack on Ukraine in February - the Kremlin ruler had approved the annexation of Crimea as host of the Olympic and Paralympic world in February 2014 - but not as punishment, but with their protection justified.
Protection from hostilities against Ukrainian athletes.
Russians and Belarusians are largely locked out for the moment, but Thomas Bach isn't the kind of person who closes a door without first knowing what key he'll use to open it again.
Eventually, Russia was punished enough for its doping program, which memorably reflected Russia's ruthless disregard for rules and legal systems of all kinds, to allow Russian athletes to continue competing in the Olympics.
Bach sees it as his duty to make the Olympic Games as inclusive as possible.
This serves the self-imposed claim as much as the marketing of the games.
It becomes a cardinal error whenever the fulfillment of the claim plays into the hands of those who ruthlessly turn athletes into tracksuit-clad ambassadors of their murderous politics.
The Olympic history is full of examples, the German sports history provides the darkest of all chapters.
And Russia's sports leadership has long spoken of the honor of its athletes' participation in the war of conquest.
The IOC President knows full well that no one with any political sense can see anything in Russian Olympians, whether they play the Russian anthem or not, other than Putin's sports soldiers, at least as long as Russia's army wreaks havoc on Ukraine .
Putin sees them as his sports soldiers.
The Ukrainian athletes do that even more.
It's a shame that the German IOC President wants the two to compete against each other at the Olympics.