It is necessary to fight doping in sports - Putin

SOCHI, November 11. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with athletes in Sochi’s federal martial arts center that it is necessary to fight doping in sports. "It is necessary to fight doping," Putin said. He inspected the Yug Sport center in Sochi before a meeting on training of Olympians. Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko told the head of state of the center’s possibilities. Mutko said earlier Wednesday that Russia hopes for a reasonable approach on the part of international organizations in the situation with accusations of Russian athletes of using doping. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Independent Commission delivered on Monday a report on its investigation into doping abuse allegations involving Russian athletes and recommended that the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) suspend all athletes of the All-Russia Athletics Federation (ARAF) from participation in international competitions. It also recommended on Monday to ban for life five Russian athletes and five coaches over their involvement in doping abuse violations as well as to strip the Moscow anti-doping laboratory of its license. "I would now like to hope for a reasonable, calm approach of our international organizations - the International Olympic Committee, the IAAF, WADA. Of course, there are conclusions of the Independent Commission. But they need to be analyzed. Because, naturally, the commission’s task was to consider problems, shortcomings," Mutko said. "No one has considered how much the country has done to improve the situation," he said. "The key principle of the international sports movement and all philosophy of WADA is built on the principle that it is necessary to protect conscientious athletes," Mutko said. "Russia’s national athletics team has 90 percent of athletes, or even more, who are conscientious." "We don’t hide that we have problems too. But I will say once again: we are capable of coping with all that," he said. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday commenting on the WADA Independent Commission’s report that allegations against Russian sportsmen over the massive use of doping performance enhancing drugs were groundless and not backed up by evidence so far. The Russian Sports Ministry, in turn, advised WADA to focus on real facts during the investigation against Russian athletes. Richard Pound, the head of the WADA Independent Commission told a news conference on Monday that the delivered report was only the first part and the final text of the investigation’s findings would be published by the end of the year. The Independent Commission of WADA was set up and began its work earlier following a series of German documentaries on the alleged mass use of performance enhancing drugs among Russia’s track and field athletes. In December 2014 German TV Channel ARD aired a series of documentaries on alleged doping abuse in Russian sports. The ARD’s two-part documentary, entitled Geheimsache Doping (Secret Doping Case), claimed that Russian athletes systematically took banned substances on instructions from their coaches. Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in June his deep disappointment with the rise of positive doping cases registered among Russian athletes and called to enhance the fight against the abuse of performance enhancing drugs. On August 1 this year ARD released another documentary "Doping - Top Secret: The Shadowy World of Athletics." The film claimed that ARD and British newspaper The Sunday Times had obtained a leaked database belonging to the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), which contained more than 12,000 blood tests from around 5,000 athletes in the years 2001 to 2012. ARD further alleged that a third of medals (146, including 55 golds) in endurance events at the Olympics and World Championships between 2001 and 2012 were won by athletes who have recorded suspicious tests but none of these athletes have been stripped of their medals. The Sunday Times also alleged that Russian athletes suspected of doping abuse had won 80 percent of medals for their country at Olympic Games and World Championships between 2001 and 2012. Read more