Putin had been due to meet with track federation coach Yuri Borzakovsky and other Russian sports leaders.
Advertisement
Vladimir Putin has called for an internal investigation following the publication of a report of alleged doping which it believes should result in Russian athletes being suspended from competition.
His resignation came after WADA suspended Moscow’s heavily criticised anti-doping laboratory on Tuesday, the day after releasing its explosive, 335-page report on the scandal.
WADA meanwhile confirmed the provisional closure of the Moscow laboratory in the eye of the doping storm.
Russian Federation looks likely to be handed a provisional suspension by the IAAF’s ruling council on Friday ahead of a formal disciplinary hearing following revelations of systemic doping in the country.
“The IAAF confirms it has tonight received a letter from Lamine Diack resigning his position as President of the global Athletics Foundation”, the body said in a statement.
Putin, an avid sportsman, has made no public comment since the myriad of charges levelled by WADA’s Dick-Pound chaired independent commission rocked the Olympic’s flagship sport.
Bach said he expects the IAAF decisions will “protect clean athletes”.
WADA’s 11-month investigation did not find direct evidence of government involvement, but the report said “it would be naive in the extreme to conclude that activities on the scale discovered could have occurred without the explicit or tacit approval of Russian governmental authorities”, the NY Times reports.
The report also recommended that five athletes and five coaches should be given lifetime doping bans.
The report suggested the laboratory had “been involved in a widespread coverup” of positive doping tests and said 1,417 samples which WADA had wanted to be kept were targeted for “intentional and malicious destruction”.
Mutko has since indicated he would be ready to appoint a foreign expert to head the anti-doping lab. The Senegalese official stepped down in August as president of the IAAF after 16 years in charge of track’s governing body.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, attend their late-night meeting with the heads of Russia’s sports federations in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, Wednesday, November 11, 2015. “FINA is committed to do everything necessary to become the world’s cleanest sport”.
He was arrested by French investigators and charged with corruption last week amid allegations he took bribes to cover up doping cases, principally in Russian Federation.
Advertisement
Even if Russia’s track and field team is banned, Mutko told the AP that the country has no intention of boycotting the Olympics.
