Putin speaks out against 'unjust and unfair' Rio ban
Russian President Vladimir Putin has spoken out against the IAAF’s decision to uphold an international ban over his country’s track and field federation that would bar it from sending athletes to the upcoming Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
“Of course that is unjust and unfair,” Putin said in a Friday news conference. "There are universally recognized principles of law and one of them is that the responsibility should be always personified - if some of the members of your family have committed a crime, would it be fair to hold all the members of the family liable including you? That is not how it's done."
The IAAF voted unanimously Friday to extend its ban after it found that “the deep-seated culture of tolerance (or worse) for doping” had not been changed since the ban was instated in November.
But the IAAF left open a back door for athletes who live and train outside the “tainted” Russian system to appeal to compete independently. Russian Minister of Sport Vitaly Mutko and world-record holding pole-vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva have each rejected this idea.
Just before the IAAF released its decision, Putin once again vehemently denied accusations that the country ran a state-sponsored doping program.
"There isn't and cannot be any support on the government level of violations in sport, especially on the question of doping," he said.
Putin maintained that stance Friday and vowed to continue the fight against doping.
"I hope that we will be able to find some solution here, but of course that does not mean we are going to be offended and say we are not going to fight doping,” Putin said Friday. “No. We will make the doping fight fiercer."
