Russians offer ‘broad cooperation’ in effort to avoid ban

Dick Pound arrived to speak at a news conference in Geneva on Monday.

WADA’s report also accused Russian Federation of “sabotaging” the London Olympics in 2012, and Mutko hit out at the United Kingdom for their procedures during the event.

The report alleges that Russian athletes routinely took banned substances to compete, with help from coaches and Sergei Portugalov, a veteran sports doctor who chaired the Russian athletics federation’s medical commission.

Nike provides apparel for the Russian track and field team and many others.

“We’re prepared for broad cooperation”.

In quotes published by British newspaper The Guardian, Mutko said that even if Russia’s athletes are suspended, “we don’t plan to boycott anything, anywhere”.

“If you’re accusing our athletes today, then I’m afraid your system is zero and worse than ours”, Mutko said.

“We’re trying to do our best and we want to have a positive image on our sport and I don’t want what has ever come out to put a tainted vision on what track and field is”, she told CBC News in an interview.

“They think Kenya is sweeping doping issues under the carpet”, Kip Keino, chairman of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya who captured gold medals in the 1,500 meters at the 1968 Mexico City Games and in the 3,000-meter steeplechase four years later at the Munich Olympics, told AFP.

VTB first deputy president Vasily Titov says the end of the partnership deal with governing body of track and field is not related to the Russian doping scandal.

At number 10 Elizavetinsky lane in eastern Moscow, Rodchenkov’s laboratory stands next to the VNIIFK head office.

The Russian president said he wanted “professional co-operation” with anti-doping bodies.

The WADA-led commission said Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA’s doping control officers had “routinely” accepted bribes from athletes to ensure their doping tests would be found negative, among other damning findings.

Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko calmed fears within the global sports community that his country would re-open the bitter divisions of the 1980s if its track-and-field stars were excluded from Rio 2016.

The Russian athletics federation (ARAF) will point out that its president Valentin Balakhnichev resigned after the ARD programme, and that there is a new Russian member on the IAAF council.

The statement went on to urge the IAAF to take action against Olympic athletes accused of doping in Wada’s report.