Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said on August 22 that he believes the chances are good that the arbitration court will back Russia.
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Russian Federation has reacted with fury after it failed in an appeal against its exclusion from September’s Paralympic Games at the court of arbitration for sport (CAS).
The Paralympics’ later start date also gave the IPC more time than the International Olympic Committee to digest Richard McLaren’s landmark report for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
McLaren revealed that 11 positive drugs tests from Russian Paralympic athletes were covered up by the Moscow anti-doping laboratory on orders from Russia’s ministry of sport between 2012 and 2015.
On Tuesday, Craven said the ruling was a “sad day for the Paralympic Movement, but we hope also a new beginning”.
The Russian Paralympic Committee had challenged the ban from next month’s Games issued by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) for failing to ensure compliance with its anti-doping code.
Russian authorities also corrupted results at the 2014 Sochi Winter Games and Winter Paralympics by swapping tainted doping samples for clean ones through a whole in a wall between WADA-accredited laboratory proper to secret lab, the inquiry said – all under the noses of worldwide observers.
The IPC’s determination to prohibit the whole Russian team “was proportionate in the circumstances”, in accordance with the Cas panel, which said it would release the complete reasons because of its conclusion after.
Earlier in August the IPC said they had “no option” but to take such action following the Russian state doping scandal.
The IPC made the decision in light of the McLaren report, which detailed a state-sponsored doping programme operated by Russian Federation.
“Following this decision, our full focus is on sport and working with our partners to deliver a successful Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.
We found that member – the Russian Paralympic Committee – not to be fulfilling its obligations in regards to the IPC Anti-Doping Code and World Anti-Doping Code and therefore chose to take the best course of action for the Paralympic movement”.
“We will also continue to work closely with the IPC Anti-Doping Committee and WADA on the measures to be taken to address the athletes implicated as part of the McLaren Report, including advice on results management”.
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The country narrowly escaped an outright International Olympic Committee ban from the just-concluded Rio Games, but still saw dozens of its athletes barred, including the entire track and field team. In all, 270 Russians competed in Rio and won 56 medals; Russia finished in fourth place behind the U.S., Britain, and China.
