 On 6 December 2017, Putin confirmed that the Russian government would not prevent any of its athletes from participating at the 2018 Games as individuals, despite there being calls from other leading Russian politicians for a boycott.Gennady Zyuganov, leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, put forward a proposal to send fans to the Games with a Soviet Victory Banner.Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, commented that the United States "fears honest competition", affirming Vladimir Putin's position that the United States used its influence within the IOC to "orchestrate the doping scandal".