During the press conference held following the results of the Normandy Four Summit, the Russian President commented on the ban on Russian athletes’ participation in the Olympic Games for four years.
Answering the journalists’ question, Vladimir Putin noted that the World Anti-Doping Agency has no claims to the Russian National Olympic Committee.
“And if there are no claims to it, the country should compete under the national flag — this is the Olympic Charter,” said Putin, the Kremlin reports.
According to him, any punishment should be individual and be based on what a specific person has done. The penalties cannot be collective and cannot be applied to people who have nothing to do with violations, said the President of the Russian Federation.
Therefore, Putin said that the basis for such decisions is not concern for the purity of world sports, but “political opinion”.
At the meeting in Lausanne (Switzerland) on December 9, the Executive Committee of WADA deprived the Russian Federation of the right to participate in major international sporting events, including the Olympic Games and world championships, for four years. The reason was the suspicion that the base of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory was manipulated.
WADA also prohibited officials of the Russian Federation and the management of the Russian Olympic and Paralympic Committees from visiting international sporting events. In addition, Russia was denied the right to host the World Cup and to apply for it for 4 years. The country’s athletes will not be able to compete at the Olympics and world championships under the country’s flag.
