Russia has dismissed the impact of a decision by US and some European leaders to skip the opening of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi over Moscow's record on human rights.
US President Barack Obama last week named two openly gay sports stars but no acting official to his Games delegation, in a message of opposition to a ban on "homosexual propaganda" that Russia imposed this year.
French President Francois Hollande and British Prime Minister David Cameron are among a clutch of EU leaders who have also decided to skip the Games' opening ceremony on February the 7th.
But Russian Olympic Committee chief Alexander Zhukov says the high-profile absences will have no impact on the Games.
He says the focus is on the competition, not world leaders, and also emphasised that nobody was talking about boycotting the Games.
