Russian President Vladimir Putin has responded to the damning World Anti‑Doping Agency report that confirms state‑backed doping of Russian athletes saying there is no place for doping in sport as it is a threat to the lives and health of athletes as well as discrediting fair play.
Putin also warned global efforts to ban Russia from the Rio Olympics were inappropriate with sport being made a tool of "geopolitical pressure".
He says they are seeing a dangerous return to politics interfering with sport.
Putin says the form of interference has changed but the goal is the same to make sport an instrument to apply geopolitical pressure in ways that led to boycotts of the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the 1984 Los Angeles games over the Soviet Union's entry into Afghanistan.
The president spoke after the independent report commissioned by the World Anti‑Doping Agency concluded that the Russian Sports Ministry oversaw a vast programme to manipulate doping test results from 2011 to 2015.
The investigator, Richard McLaren says it is inconceivable that Russian Sports Minister was unaware of the efforts to hide positive doping results for athletes.
McLaren’s investigation found that athletes' positive urine samples were swapped out during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
The report is an embarrassment for Putin, who personally oversaw preparations for the US$50 billion games in Sochi the most expensive in Olympic history.
The country's track‑and‑field team has already been barred from international competition due to doping concerns.
Source : stuff.co
