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Ban all Russians from Rio: world doping body

Vladimir Putin has shown a willingness to assert himself in the region. Photo: AAP

Vladimir Putin has shown a willingness to assert himself in the region. Photo: AAP Photo: AAP

Calls are growing for Russia to be banned from the 2016 Rio Olympics after a damning report found state-sponsored involvement in a widespread doping program that began in 2011.

The report found evidence of an elaborate sample switching program under which athletes would provide clean urine samples which were stored in freezers.

The athletes would then resume doping and any subsequent contaminated samples would be smuggled out of testing laboratories by agents working for Russia’s FSB secret service and replaced with the clean samples.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report found the Russian Government operated “a state-dictated failsafe system” of doping, including at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

Canadian law professor Richard McLaren said the FSB had backed the doping cover-ups at anti-doping laboratories in Moscow and Sochi under orders from the country’s Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko.

“The Moscow laboratory operated, for the protection of doped Russian athletes, within a state-dictated failsafe system,” Professor McLaren said.

https://twitter.com/WADA_BCNichols/status/755037847992750081

“The Sochi Laboratory operated a unique sample swapping methodology to enable doped Russian athletes to compete at the Winter Olympic Games.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin staked his reputation on the Sochi Games, which at around $US50 billion ($66 billion) was the most expensive in Olympic history.

Russia topped the medal table with 13 gold medals and 33 overall.

The report found: “The Ministry of Sport directed, controlled and oversaw the manipulation of athletes’ analytical results or sample swapping and the active participation and assistance of the FSB [Russian Federal Security Service], CSP [Centre of Sports Preparation for Russian athletes] and both Moscow and Sochi laboratories.”

Among the findings, the report said doping failures by athletes at the 2013 world athletics championships in Moscow were swapped before being sent on for testing by the sport’s ruling body the IAAF.

https://twitter.com/WADA_BCNichols/status/755045037948358657

Putin since said the officials accused in a WADA report of enabling widespread abuse of performance-enhancing drugs will be suspended for the duration of an investigation.

“Officials named in the commission’s report as direct perpetrators will be temporarily suspended from their duties until the full completion of an investigation,” Putin said in the statement on Monday, without specifically identifying such officials.

“However, so that a final decision can be made about the liability of officials, we ask the WADA commission to present more complete and objective information, based on facts, for consideration during the investigation by Russian law enforcement authorities.”

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