Russia’s athletics federation was suspended by the IAAF last November, following allegations of state-sponsored doping made in a report from an independent commission established by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
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IAAF head Sebastian Coe, appointed to oversee a broader shakeup in athletics to eradicate corruption and doping, suggested a final decision would be taken at the next scheduled council meeting in May.
Russia, second to the United States in the sport’s pecking order, will be allowed to return to competition, including August’s Rio Olympics, when it proves to WADA and the IAAF that it has met a series of conditions regarding its anti-doping operation.
Mutko said the IAAF’s decision to uphold the ban would further punish athletes who are clean and also damage Russian competitors’ performance in Rio if in the end they are allowed to compete at the Games. “It’s a first job that needs to be done”.
Ethiopia is the latest to have its credibility questioned after it was announced last month that six athletes, some of them elite performers, are under investigation for doping.
His repeated doubts follow another explosive documentary by German broadcaster ARD detailing continued violations by Russia’s athletics programme.
The ARD reports in recent months on doping in Russian sport were based on information provided by whistleblowers Vitaly Stepanov, who formerly worked for Russia’s anti-doping agency, and his wife Yuliya, an 800m runner banned for doping.
He also said that Russian athletes will be unable to compete in the 2016 Rio Olympics if a ban on their participation is not lifted by mid-July.
“I’m really happy for that issue to be discussed again and that we properly understand the details, legal and logistic, of her eligibility to compete”, Coe said. “I wrote a letter to both of them (Stepanova and her husband) saying that I was very grateful for the help and support that they have given the taskforce and at the appropriate moment I would of course be speaking to them”.
ARD aired another documentary Sunday, in which Russian coach Vladimir Mokhnev was accused of continuing to train athletes while he serves an IAAF suspension.
Marathon world record holder Paula Radcliffe is backing an online petition urging the IAAF to recover all prize and appearance money awarded to Russian athletes who have been caught doping since 2009.
A statement from world athletics’ governing body read: “Morocco and Ethiopia both need to appoint an anti-doping coordinator and, as a matter of urgency, establish a national testing programme”. “Kenya, Ukraine and Belarus have been put on an IAAF monitoring list for 2016 to ensure their anti-doping programs are significantly strengthened and their journey to compliance completed by the end of this year”.
“Serious sanctions, also provided for within IAAF rules, will only be considered if they don’t comply with Council requirements”.
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Three Ethiopian runners have been suspended on suspicion of doping amid a string of positive tests among the country’s athletes.
