Russia proposes its athletes compete under Russian Olympic flag to evade ban

Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko says the IAAF’s suspension of the All-Russia Athletics Federation (ARAF) is only temporary.

A World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) independent commission last week published a damning report that alleged Russian athletics were plagued with state-sponsored doping and large-scale corruption, and recommended that Russian track and field athletes be barred from global competition.

“Our main objective is to ensure our athletes’ participation in the Olympic Games at Rio de Janeiro, to restore their status”.

After many Russian officials initially dismissed the WADA report as a politically motivated smear Russia has become increasingly willing to offer reforms and admit past mistakes on doping even as they continue to dispute key WADA claims such as that the Russian security services infiltrated anti-doping operations.

“An inspection team led by Independent Chair Rune Andersen, an independent worldwide anti-doping expert (Norwegian) and three members of the IAAF Council who will be appointed in the next few days”. The IOC has previously allow independents to compete at Olympic Games in certain cases, such as when an athlete’s home country is in transition or subject to sanctions.

According to Mr Mutko, the Russian Olympic flag plan would be a way to keep their athletes in top form.

Mikhail Butov the secretary general of the Russian Athletic Federation says keeping Russian athletes out of competition was unfair.

Mutko spoke after attending an extraordinary meeting of the board of the Russian Athletics Federation.

“This compliance is the condition to take part in the Olympic Games”, Bach said. “This is the first and only priority right now for the IAAF and for Russian Federation”.

The allegations, made by a special commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), have caused the country’s biggest sporting scandal in several decades and could cost it a place at next year’s Olympics in Rio.

Mutko said elections to replace nearly the entire ARAF leadership would be held in the next two months.

“It was meant to divert the blow from themselves” he said. “This partially explains such a tough decision with regard to Russia’s Athletics Federation”, Zelichenok was quoted as saying by state-run newswire R-Sport agency.

Coe, writing in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper, was elected president of the IAAF in August after spending eight years as deputy to Lamine Diack, who is being investigated by French police on suspicion of having taken more than one million euros in payments to cover up positive drugs tests.