“The decision to suspend our Paralympians is outside the law, morality, humanity”, Putin said in a ceremony at the Kremlin that honoured the Russian Olympic medallists returning from Rio.Putin also pledged that the country would organise competitions for the banned Paralympians “to show all their skills”.
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The president of the Russian Paralympic Committee, Vladimir Lukin, on Wednesday pledged to press on with legal action in a bid to overturn the decision. The Paralympic Games run from September 7-18 in Rio.
The ban was confirmed Tuesday when the Court of Arbitration of Sport rejected a Russian appeal.
At a Kremlin ceremony to welcome home Russian athletes who had competed in the Rio Games, Putin said global anti-doping organisations had singled out Russia for harsh treatment because they were subject to political pressure.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) released a report by Professor Richard H. McLaren prior to this month’s Olympic Games, which said Russian Federation operated a state-sponsored doping program for four years across the vast majority of summer and winter Olympic sports.
“It is simply cynical to vent one’s anger on those for whom sport has become the meaning of their life”. “I feel sorry for those who make such decisions, because they can not understand that [those decisions] are humiliating them”.
The IPC decision followed revelations of widespread cheating in Russian sport that ignited a doping scandal that has threatened to split the Olympic Movement.
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Their team topped the medal table at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in the Russian city of Sochi after taking second place behind China at London 2012.
