Russian Federation should be banned from athletics after ‘sabotaging’ London 2012 Olympics

Interpol said: “France’s national anti-corruption department of the central directorate of judicial police will launch the inquiry, headed by French investigative magistrate Renaud Van Ruymbeke”. “These are dark days”.

Russian Federation could be banned from next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro after a devastatingly critical World Anti-Doping Agency report accused the country’s government of complicity in widespread doping and cover-ups by its track and field athletes.

“It’s worse than we thought, it has the effect of factually affecting the results on the field and play and athletes, both in Russian Federation and overseas, are suffering as a result”.

WADA added neither the Russian athletics federation, nor the Russian Federation (ARAF) and the Russian anti-doping agency can be considered compliant with anti-doping legislations, after a Russian doctor admitted to voluntarily destroying over 1,400 samples that were held in a Moscow laboratory. The ARAF has until the end of the week to issue a response, the Associated Press reported. He said the allegations were beyond what he was expecting. We need time to properly digest and understand the detailed findings included in the report.

To the AP, he added: “We have finally identified one of the major powers as being involved in this”.

Dick Pound, former WADA President and head of the commission that produced the report, referred to an unprecedented corruption scandal now shaking soccer’s governing body, FIFA. I will do everything I can to protect the clean athletes. “This is non-negotiable”.

It found “organized efforts on the part of many senior coaches and officials, inside and outside Russian Federation, to promote doping and make it possible for such efforts to be successful” and said that “evidence exists that confirms that coaches have attempted to manipulate or interfere with doping reports and testing procedures”. That work will take at least “several months”, and “there are a lot of people who are going to have to walk the plank before this happens”, he said.

Still, the widespread reaction in Russian Federation of denying allegations and blaming others, including WADA, did not inspire hope of change and reform.

ARD said former Chicago Marathon victor Liliya Shobukhova paid 450,000 euros ($520,000) to Russian officials linked to then-IAAF treasurer Valentin Balakhnichev, who threatened her with a doping ban before the London Games.

On Monday morning, just before WADA released its findings, the global Olympic Committee’s ethics committee recommended the provisional suspension of Diack, who was an IOC member from 1999 to 2014 and remains an honorary member.

“The International Olympic Committee trusts that the new leadership of the IAAF with its President Sebastian Coe will draw all the necessary conclusions and will take all the necessary measures”, the International Olympic Committee said in a statment.

Diack was a powerful figure within the IOC as he controlled one of the most popular Olympic sports for more 15 years with athletics also a big beneficiary, along with swimming, of the IOC’s Olympic Games contributions.