Russian athletes have been largely frozen out of international sport since the invasion of Ukraine last year, but the ROC has avoided suspension and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has recently paved the way for their return as individual neutrals under strict conditions.

ROC secretary general Rodion Plitukhin met virtually with his Syrian Olympic Committee counterpart Nasser Alsaied to discuss ways to further collaborate and plan the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the International Forum of Young Olympians in Moscow on June 1.

Most recently in February, the ROC and Russian Boxing Federation supported Syrian boxers preparing for this year's delayed Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games.

Syrian athletes have also competed in taekwondo and karate in Moscow and cycling in Adygea.

Representatives from the Syrian Olympic Committee also invited the ROC delegation to visit Damascus.

Discussing measures taken in response to the war in Ukraine, Alsaied claimed "the Russian Olympic movement is now under great pressure from unfriendly forces, which is a direct violation of the Olympic Charter".

Plitukhin, who succeeded Anastasia Davydova as ROC secretary general last year after she fled Russia, said the "level of relations between our organisations allows us to talk about the need to form a comprehensive Memorandum of Cooperation".

Vladimir Putin's Russia is one of the few international allies of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.

Al-Assad's Government has faced widespread allegations of war crimes during the Syrian Civil War which began in 2011, while Syria is one of the only countries which has consistently voted against Putin's invasion of Ukraine at the United Nations General Assembly.

Plitukhin has also met with National Olympic and Sports Committee of Mali (CNOSM) secretary general Mohamed Oumar Traore.

Mali was one of the NOCs which met with ROC President Stanislav Pozdnyakov at last year's Association of NOCs (ANOC) General Assembly in South Korea's capital Seoul, along with South Africa, Peru, South Korea, Mauritania and Namibia.

Russia's participation at the ANOC General Assembly proved a major controversy in the build-up to and during the event because of the war in Ukraine, and a presentation by ANOC Culture and Education Commission chair Pozdnyakov prompted a walk out from National Olympic Committee and Sports Confederation of Denmark President Hans Natorp.

Clips from the International Forum of Young Olympians in Moscow were shown to delegates, which Natorp claimed represented "inappropriate propaganda".

Mali is set to participate at this year's International Forum of Young Olympians, which Plitukhin underlined the importance of for the ROC strengthening ties with other NOCs.

"The ROC plans to hold a separate session for representatives of NOCs within the framework of the Olympians Forum to help partners implement similar projects in their countries," he said.

A Russia-Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum is scheduled for July 26 to 29 in Saint Petersburg which Plitukhin claimed could "become a convenient platform for discussing the current state of affairs in the international Olympic movement and exchanging initiatives in order to strengthen sports and humanitarian cooperation in the broadest sense of the word".

He suggested an MoU between the ROC and CNOSM would be signed at this event.

In politics, Russia has also provided support to the Malian ruling military junta against Islamist insurgency in the Sahel.

Traore hopes Mali's ties with the ROC will "open up new opportunities for our country to develop sports and the Olympic movement" and move the country closer to its first Olympic medal.

The IOC has allowed Russian and Belarusian athletes to return to international sport provided they do not support the war and are not affiliated to the military.

However, this has sparked criticism particularly in Ukraine, where critics say there should be no place for Russia and Belarus in sport.

Russia has criticised a continued ban on national symbols, and practical issues remain with both countries' participation particularly in Europe.