“This has been a shameful wake-up call, and we are clear that cheating at any level will not be tolerated”, IAAF President Sebastian Coe said.
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“I guarantee – in the name of the state – that we will co-operate in any way to sort out the athletics federation in the shortest possible time”, he said.
“We’re ready for the world indoor championships if it works out in such a way that we make it”, he said.
World governing body the IAAF, led by Lord Coe, has given the country until Friday to respond to a litany of allegations contained in a bombshell World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) report.
Russia’s IAAF council member, Mikhail Butov, presented his federation’s position at the start of the meeting then recused himself from the debate and vote.
“It will be painful for those athletes with clean consciences who could compete, that’s the first thing”.
The decision means that the nation will be unable to send athletes to major sporting events in the coming months, including the 2016 Olympics and the World Athletic Series. But that rhetoric softened in recent days, with President Vladimir Putin vowing to conduct a thorough internal investigation and comply with outside ones.
However the ARAF’s current interim president Vadim Zelichenok, who replaced Balakhnichev, was also criticised in the WADA report for not co-operating.
The committee’s findings will go to the WADA foundation board, which will vote on it at its meeting next Wednesday.
“Europe will support Sebastian Coe”.
Earlier this week, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) asked IAAF to initiate disciplinary procedures against Olympic athletes and officials who are accused of doping in the report.
The 27-strong IAAF council can impose a provisional suspension but will not have the authority to impose a ban on Russian Federation attending next year’s Olympics for the systematic “state-sponsored” doping exposed by WADA’s independent commission.
Russian Federation faces suspension from world athletics today as the sport’s governing body meets to consider what sanctions to impose for the widespread doping and corruption exposed this week.
Russian sports Vitaly Mutko has also said there is no chance of Russia boycotting the Olympics in protest.
“Practically every day, at the end of the day, we release some kind of information message about the steps we’re taking and we will continue to do that”, Mutko said.
The Lausanne-based Swiss doping analysis laboratory, known by its French initials LAD, is described in the report as having destroyed test samples after making “unwarranted assumptions” they had been sufficiently tested. It is still unclear what the decision’s impact will be on the 2018 World Cup, which Russian Federation is slated to host.
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Thirty years later, Sergei Bubka still feels the pain of missing out on a chance of a gold medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics because of the Soviet boycott.
