The International Handball Federation (IHF) lifted all restrictions on Russian and Belarusian national teams, officials, referees and experts on Tuesday, allowing them to compete under their own flags and anthems with immediate effect. The decision, taken by the IHF Council in line with updated International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommendations, ends a ban imposed on 4 March 2022 and makes handball the thirteenth Olympic sport to fully reintegrate Russian athletes without neutral-status conditions. The federation stated that no additional eligibility criteria or limitations would apply, though it acknowledged a transition period may be needed and pledged to work with the International Testing Agency to uphold anti-doping rules.

Viewed from Moscow, the IHF move accelerates a trend that has gathered pace since the IOC first signalled a softening in late 2025. Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev noted that the “process of returning Russia to world sport has significantly accelerated,” with federations for gymnastics, aquatics, wrestling, judo, taekwondo and weightlifting among those already restoring full participation. The IHF itself had earlier permitted junior and youth teams to compete under certain conditions, but the new ruling removes all remaining barriers, clearing the path for senior sides to enter World Championship cycles and continental qualifiers.

In Brussels, however, the European Commission delivered a sharply different message the same week. It formally recommended cancelling a €2 million grant to the Venice Biennale after the cultural foundation allowed a Russian national pavilion to open for the first time since 2022. A Commission spokesman described the decision as “above all a political question,” insisting that no EU taxpayer money should reach any initiative involving Russia. The Biennale’s organisers had defended the pavilion as an autonomous artistic choice, but the Commission’s stance hardened after receiving replies to three warning letters. Separately, nine EU member states – Estonia, Denmark, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania and Sweden – wrote to the European Commissioner for Sport urging the bloc to exclude the IOC and other international federations that readmit Russian athletes from EU funding programmes.

Commission officials later clarified that the EU does not directly fund the IOC, but pledged to examine all channels through which sports bodies might access European money. The letter’s signatories, led by Estonia, argue that federations which drop restrictions on Russian participation should not benefit from EU resources. The push mirrors the logic applied to the Biennale, where the mere presence of a state-backed pavilion triggered a funding review, and officials indicated the same principle would apply even to individual Russian artists.

The IHF’s decision, meanwhile, carries immediate competitive consequences. Russian and Belarusian handball teams can now resume full international calendars, with the federation expressing eagerness for their return and promising support for a “timely and effective” reintegration. While the IHF also reaffirmed its solidarity with Ukraine and condemned the ongoing war, the practical effect is that senior national sides will soon be drawn into qualification tournaments for the next World Championships and the 2028 Olympic cycle, setting up a direct collision between the sporting normalisation championed by the IOC and the financial countermeasures being assembled in European capitals.