Athletics: Russian Federation ready for ‘any’ IAAF recommendation – sports minister

Global Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach has already indicated that he expects Russia to compete in Brazil, and Russian officials will be determined to work to fulfil the criteria required to have the suspension lifted before next summer.

“I believe, the IAAF council made a decision which was too severe”, Zelichenok was quoted as by R-Sport agency.

A suspension would take effect immediately, barring Russian athletes from all worldwide track and field events until the country can prove it has put its house in order.

Should Russian Federation be banned, as expected, they will only be the fifth country in the IAAF’s 103-year history to be suspended from competing – the others being South Africa, Afghanistan, Algeria and Gabon – but the first as a result of systemic doping.

Unless the Russian federation voluntarily accepts a full suspension, the IAAF will hold a hearing on whether the provisional suspension should be made a full suspension, the IAAF said in announcing todays ruling.

The Sunday Times also alleged that Russian athletes suspected of doping abuse had won 80% of medals for their country at Olympic Games and World Championships between 2001 and 2012.

Athletics’ governing body is discussing what action to take against Russian Federation after they were accused of “state-sponsored doping”.

Awaiting the verdict, Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko said before the IAAF meeting that Moscow was ready to reform or “create a new anti-doping organisation” if the IAAF or WADA demanded it.

The IAAF is considering whether to implement a World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) recommendation to ban Russian athletics from the 2016 Olympics.

In addition, Russian Federation will not host the 2016 World Race Walking Cup and 2016 World Junior Championships as planned.

The move, which comes after last week’s revelations by the World Anti-Doping Agency, was passed nearly unanimously in a vote of IAAF Council members on Friday night.

A few officials, including IAAF vice president Sergei Bubka, the pole vault great from Ukraine, have argued against a blanket ban, saying it would penalize “innocent” athletes who haven’t been found guilty or implicated in doping.

“[This is] the toughest sanction we can apply at this time”, Sebastian Coe, president of IAAF, said in a statement. The report described how Russia’s anti-doping laboratory destroyed more than 1,400 athlete test samples before a key event while Russia’s intelligence service, the FSB, purportedly infiltrated anti-doping efforts before the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. The Dutch official said: “These have been shocking findings so the message must be strong: that we can not tolerate this, whether it’s Russia or any federation”.

Coe, who is a former United Kingdom MP and is also a member of the House of Lords, is due to appear before the House of Commons’ Culture, Media and Sport select committee on December 2 for questioning on the doping scandal and his links to Nike.

The double Olympic champion has been criticised in recent months for calling media investigations into the allegations as a “declaration of war on my sport” and for referring to Diack as athletics’ spiritual leader.