and will be reinstated to the Ice Hockey Top Division, once the geopolitical situation will allow it.
IIHF at the semi-annual congress in Turkey decided it
Copy/paste from IIHF.com
Principles of reintegration of teams
Following the IIHF Council decision from 28 February 2022, Russia and Belarus are not allowed to participate in IIHF competitions until further notice. The upcoming 2022/2023 IIHF Championship season will proceed without the participation of these countries.
During the 2021/22 season, other teams have moved up in the various divisions and groups and the question arose what a reintegration would look like. In that case teams would move down between the different tiers to keep the number of participants the same.
The following basic principles as proposed by the IIHF Competition & Coordination Committee was approved by the 2022 IIHF Semi-Annual Congress:
As approved at the 2022 IIHF Annual Congress, Russia and Belarus would return to the categories and divisions in which they were originally placed prior to the Council decision. The men’s senior category with RUS/BLR in the top division would be seeded according to the IIHF Men’s World Ranking, women’s senior and U18 with RUS in the top division, men’s U20 and U18 with RUS/BLR in the top division according to the IIHF Sport Regulations.
The number of teams in each tournament would remain the same. To accommodate the number, there would be no promotion but teams would be relegated to reach the number of participants (WM=16 teams, WW/WM20/WM18=10 teams, WW18=8 teams).
The same procedure would apply to lower divisions with six-team tournaments, with groups to be filled top-down. That means if one team is placed into a lower division, the corresponding lowest-ranked team would be relegated throughout all divisions. If two teams returned in the men’s tournaments, two teams would be relegated throughout all divisions.
The deadline for a decision concerning Russia and Belarus is after the last preliminary-round game of the respective IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in the men’s senior category to prepare the championship program for the IIHF Annual Congress.
With no return of Russia and Belarus, normal promotion/relegation rules apply.
“To be clear, this decision does not indicate a return of the Russian and Belarusian teams to IIHF competition. Congress needed to take this decision so that the IIHF members understand the terms of a future reintegration of these countries into the IIHF program. The IIHF Council will continue to monitor the war in Ukraine,” said IIHF President Luc Tardif.