The IBA stunned the sporting world on Wednesday (October 5) when it lifted a ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes and both countries' national flags and symbols from its competitions, in contravention of the IOC's recommendation that has been in place since February 28 due to the war in Ukraine.

No other Olympic sport has taken such a move, with the handful of International Federations permitting athletes from both countries at their events requiring them to compete as neutrals.

The decision has led to threat of boycotts from some nations and a backlash from the Common Cause Alliance, a group of primarily Western countries which had hoped for Dutch Boxing Federation President Boris van der Vorst to replace Russian official Umar Kremlev as IBA President at last month's Extraordinary Congress in Yerevan.

Bortniczuk wrote to other Sports Ministers condemning the IBA ruling as "an extremely dangerous precedent", and urged the IOC to sever all ties with the governing body.

In a remarkable response, the IBA has accused Bortniczuk of displaying a racist attitude in his opposition to Russian and Belarusian involvement in international sport.

"The IBA believes that athletes are not distinguished into good and bad, nor friendly or not," it said in a statement provided to insidethegames.

"For the IBA, everyone is our athlete without discrimination and our athletes are the main asset of world boxing.

"We regret that this particular National minister is trying to build an international political profile by proposing to harm all our athletes and exclude them all by derecognizing their international federation as he proposes!

"These unacceptable statements of his move outside the limits of his competence, political, sports and geographical and are purely racist.

"It is obviously a result of the fact that he does not have a specific sports education.

"And because of this, no Olympic education, otherwise he would have carefully read the IOC statutes and the FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF OLYMPISM."

The IBA referenced Fundamental Principles of Olympism four, five and six in the Olympic Charter in its response, which include a declaration that "the practice of sport is a human right", "recognising that sport occurs within the framework of society, sports organisations within the Olympic Movement shall apply political neutrality", and "the enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this Olympic Charter shall be secured without discrimination of any kind".

It added that "IBA serves the principles of olympism and the rights of boxing athletes, they are all our athletes without any discrimination", and insisted "IBA will not allow politics to enter its operations".

"The IBA will ensure the smooth participation of all our athletes with their national symbols and will apply its decisions and regulations in any case where there is an obstacle to the participation of our athletes," it concluded.

"At IBA we only do sports and that is what we will continue to do."

Bortniczuk responded to the IBA's statement on Twitter by commenting: "Let me just remind you that Russia has violated the Olympic peace by attacking Ukraine."

The widely-condemned invasion of Ukraine led to Russia and Belarus being largely frozen out of international sport, with the IBA excluding athletes and officials from both countries in March until its Board of Directors lifted the measures last week, with Ukrainian vice-president Volodymyr Prodyvus the only dissenting voice.

Following Alisher Usmanov's decision to stand aside as President of the International Fencing Federation due to the European Union's imposition of sanctions against him, boxing has been one of only two Russian-led Olympic sports during that period.

Kremlev was re-elected by acclamation at the IBA Extraordinary Congress in Istanbul in May, after challenger van der Vorst was deemed ineligible to stand on the eve of the election by the Boxing Independent Integrity Unit.

Van der Vorst successfully appealed against that decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but another IBA Extraordinary Congress in Yerevan last month voted against staging a fresh election.

Since then, the IOC and IBA have become involved in an escalating public dispute.

Boxing's place at the Olympic Games from Los Angeles 2028 onwards remains in doubt, with the sport left off the initial programme.

The IBA, then using the acronym AIBA, was suspended by the IOC as boxing's governing body at the Olympic Games in 2019.

An IOC Boxing Task Force managed boxing at Tokyo 2020, and is set to do so again at Paris 2024.