DPA/Berlin


Russia’s Olympic Committee (NOC) said yesterday it will co-operate in the fight against doping and supports harsh sanctions against offenders while warning that a looming ban of its entire athletics team would hurt clean athletes.
Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said that if Russia has not done enough to prevent doping, “we are ready to work more” but also raised questions in connection with a report from an independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
“Many issues in the report appeared strange, not confirmed by facts.  Many of the issues were tendential, but overall we are considering these conclusions with respect,” Mutko said.
The WADA committee said Monday that Russia’s athletics federation should be banned from competition including the 2016 Olympics in connection with widespread doping in the country and the covering up of positive or suspicious tests, allegations first made in a German TV documentary in December 2014.
It recommended life bans for five athletes, four coaches and a doctor, and WADA Tuesday suspended the accreditation of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory.
The council of the ruling athletics body IAAF will meet Friday to discuss the case, and WADA could next week declare Russian athletics non-compliant with its code.
The NOC said in a statement it opposes such a sanction because “the right of honest (clean) athletes in international sports competition” must be protected.
Acting Russian athletics chief Vadim Zelichyonok told the Tass news agency that “we have the right to appeal any decision, which is going to be made.”
Speaking in general terms, the NOC said it “fully supports the efforts of the IOC, WADA, the international sporting community and public authorities of the Russian Federation to combat doping.
“Anyone caught using prohibited substances as well as anyone directly or indirectly assisting in their use are subject to disqualification.  If guilt is proven the penalties should be harsh.”
The implicated athletes include the London 2012 Olympics 800m gold medallist Mariya Savinova, and the IOC said it “will take all the necessary measures and sanctions with regard to the withdrawal and reallocation of medals and as the case may be exclusion of coaches and officials from future Olympic Games.
“The IOC expects the IAAF and WADA to consider all necessary action to be taken to protect the clean athletes and rebuild trust,” the IOC said.
The IOC said yesterday that former IAAF president Lamine Diack has resigned as honorary IOC member after being provisionally suspended the previous day. He has also stepped down as president of the International Athletics Foundation (IAF).
Based on information passed on by WADA, Diack is under criminal investigation by French on suspicion to have taken bribes to cover up positive doping tests of athletes from Russia and possibly other countries.
Due to the ongoing criminal investigation this part of the WADA commission report was not published on Monday.
WADA president Craig Reedie meanwhile has denied he was lenient towards Russia in connection with a reassuring email he sent in April to the Russian sports ministry to ease concerns over the investigation.
“The assumption that I was soft on Russia I have categorically denied, and I think you can see that anybody who believes I am soft on Russia must be marginally off their head,” Reedie told the New York Times.
It was also revealed that the key whistle-blower in the documentary, Vitaly Stepanov, first approached WADA in 2013 but was seemingly not satisfied with their action and turned to the German ARD network.