Mr Putin, addressing members of Russia’s Olympic team in the Kremlin, said that the decision by global sporting organisations to ban some Russian athletes from the games, flew in the face of common sense and legality.
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The number of banned Russians from next month’s Rio Olympics passed 100 after nineteen more athletes of the country’s rowers were barred from the Summer Games.
The Russian head of state was speaking at the Kremlin, where he was meeting with more than 150 athletes who will soon depart for Rio de Janeiro to take part in next month’s Olympic Games.
Putin, who was addressing members of Russia’s Olympic team in the Kremlin, said that the absence of some Russian sportspeople from the Olympics would damage worldwide sport as well as the Olympics. “The applications by 68 athletes for eligibility to compete in Rio were assessed carefully and on an individual basis by the IAAF Doping Review Board, and only one of them was found to meet the criteria for exceptional eligibility”.
“We can not agree with indiscriminate suspensions placed on athletes with completely doping-free histories”, he said.
Putin said the athletes banned from the Olympics were victims of a campaign to present Russian sports in a bad light. The decision came after the FIE said it had re-examined 197 tests taken from Russian fencers in 35 countries over the last two years which all came back negative.
Vladimir Putin has criticised the Olympic ban on Russian track and field athletes as “discrimination” and believes it represents a “political campaign” against Russian sportspeople.
2012 London Olympic Champion Alexander Dyachenko was among five canoeists who were ruled out of the prestigious games after being named in a recent report by World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren which revealed that Russian Federation orchestrated state-sponsored doping scheme at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
The International Triathlon Union said the three men and three women who qualified for Rio are not mentioned in the McLaren report and have not served past doping suspensions. “Therefore, ITU will recommend to the International Olympic Committee that these six athletes be permitted to compete in Rio next month”.
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“We have responded to the minister explaining the IAAF’s eligibility rules have been upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)”. In his native Germany, IOC President Thomas Bach is facing increasing criticism for failing to impose a complete ban on Russia’s team.
