LAUSANNE, Switzerland — A leading Russian sports official has urged the IOC to reverse a ban on the country's flag from the Pyeongchang Olympics. Alisher Usmanov, the president of the International Fencing Federation, said the legal principle of No guilt — no punishment means clean Russian athletes are being denied basic human rights. Even though discrimination in any shape or form contradicts the principles of the Olympic Movement, the IOC's decision certainly does put clean Russian athletes on an uneven playing field with athletes from other countries, Usmanov wrote in an open letter to International Olympic Committee (IOC) executive board members. The board is chaired by IOC President Thomas Bach, an Olympic gold medalist in fencing. The IOC imposed a range of sanctions this week on Russia for organized doping at the 2014 Sochi Games. Only Russians who are invited by an IOC-appointed panel can compete at the Feb. 9-25 Games as an Olympic Athlete from Russia, in a neutral uniform and without their flag or anthem. Usmanov asked the IOC to let Russian gold medalists reach the summit of their dream and see the flag of their motherland in Pyeongchang's sky. The Uzbekistan-born oligarch has long been a close ally of the Russian government and President Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, Russian Olympic Committee President Alexander Zhukov said competitions should be organized for Russian athletes who decide not to compete at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games, R-Sport news agency reported on Friday. We need to hold alternative competitions for the athletes who decide not to go to the Olympic Games, R-Sport quoted Zhukov as saying. But we also need to support those who decide to go. Zhukov, who did not provide further detail about the possible nature of those competitions, added that it was unacceptable to accuse Russian athletes who decide to compete at the Olympics of being unpatriotic. President Vladimir Putin said this week that Russia would not prevent athletes from competing at the Games if they wanted to, damping down calls by some Russians for the country to boycott. Russia is expected to make a final decision on its stance regarding the IOC ban at a meeting of the country's Olympic authorities next week. Russian authorities have vehemently denied any state support for doping and have pledged to cooperate with international sports bodies to counter the use of banned performance-enhancing drugs. The speaker of the Russian parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, told lawmakers earlier on Friday that they should not attend the Pyeongchang Games if Russian athletes are not competing under the country's flag, local news agencies reported. In the weeks ahead of Tuesday's IOC decision, more than 20 Russian athletes who competed at the 2014 Sochi Games were banned for life from the Olympics for having allegedly violated anti-doping rules. Also, the head of the Pyeongchang Winter Games Friday shot down an irresponsible report that Olympics chief Bach is hoping to visit North Korea to discuss its participation in the competition. Lee Hee-Beom, president of the Pyeongchang Olympics Organizing Committee (POCOG) told AFP he was flabbergasted when he heard the report. I was flabbergasted by the report which is absolutely groundless, he said, after arriving back in South Korea following this week's IOC executive board meeting in Switzerland. I suspect someone might be talking about his own wishful thinking. This is quite irresponsible. In reality, North Korea is under international sanctions and such a visit is hard to be realize. South Korea's Yonhap news agency earlier cited unnamed government sources in a report, which, said Bach wanted to visit North Korea. The visit may be made by the end of this year, Yonhap quoted one of the officials as saying. Pyeongchang organisers are pushing for the North to compete as they hope to portray the event as a symbol of peace on the flashpoint peninsula. The North missed the Oct. 30 deadline to confirm its participation, although its pairs figure skaters Ryom Tae-Ok and Kim Ju-Sik had qualified. Yonhap said the IOC is in talks with Pyongyang over a visit, which may be made by another senior IOC official instead of Bach. A spokeswoman for the unification ministry, which handles inter-Korea affairs, said she was not aware of any plans for a visit. — Agencies