Athletics doping scandal: Russian federation to admit some charges

“To regain membership to the IAAF the new federation would have to fulfil a list of criteria”, Coe said.

Earlier on Friday, he said that Russian Federation was ready to reform its anti-doping agency or create a new one.

Russian Federation is expected to be provisionally suspended by athletics’ world governing body on Friday as IAAF president Lord Coe faced fresh calls to sever his links with sportswear giants Nike.

Russian athletics chiefs plan to admit to some of the doping charges levelled against them in an attempt to avoid a ban from next summer’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Rune Andersen, an independent anti-doping expert, along with three members of the IAAF council, will be appointed by the beginning of next week to lead an inspection into Russian doping.

The report also named six Russian athletes that competed in London’s 2012 Olympics as cheats.

“It is our duty to protect the clean athletes”, the Ukrainian pole vault great said, drawing a parallel with his own experience of being prevented from competing at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles because of a Soviet boycott.

Russian athletics was placed firmly in the doping dock and risks exclusion from next year’s Rio Olympics after the explosive accusations contained in Monday’s World Anti-Doping Agency report which rocked the Olympic’s flagship sport. “This is not about politics, this is about the protection of clean athletes”.

The IAAF and WADA would need to set out the terms for what the Russians need to do to get a suspension lifted, including complying fully with the global anti-doping code.

It’s the first time the IAAF has banned a country for doping, but president Sebastian Coe said there was no other choice.

“Council examined this matter very thoughtfully, fully aware of the extraordinary action we ultimately made a decision to take”, Stephanie Hightower, USATF president and IAAF council member, said in a statement.

“We send a clear message to clean athletes in a dirty system to report any doping or cheating that they see or hear about”.

“We are angry at the damage being caused to the reputation and credibility of athletics”, four-time Olympic silver medalist Frankie Fredericks said, speaking on behalf of the IAAF’s Athletes Commission.

Russia’s Olympic Committee head Alexander Zhukov on Thursday flew to Switzerland to meet with International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach. “Russian Federation is against political interference in sport”, Mutko said. WADA investigators found evidence of the destruction of more than 1,400 Russian doping control samples, and uncovered evidence of a shadow laboratory used to doctor athletes’ blood test results.

It also jeopardises their involvement in March’s World Indoor Championships in Portland, Oregon, while the council also made the decision to remove the country as hosts of two IAAF-sanctioned events.