By Daily Sports on July 23, 2016

President Vladimir Putin on Friday insisted Russia was committed to wiping out doping in a last-ditch push to avoid a possible blanket ban from the Rio Games over state-run drug cheating.

“The official position of the Russian authorities — the government, the president and all of us — is that in sport there is not and can be no place for doping,” Putin told government ministers.

“To do this, it is obligatory to cooperate as closely as possible with the disciplinary committee of the International Olympic Committee, the World Anti-Doping Agency and the international sports federations,” he said.

The Kremlin strongman also ordered Russia’s Olympic committee to establish an anti-doping commission to include both Russian and international specialists to try to clean up the country’s image.

The IOC’s executive board are to hold a conference call on Sunday to discuss barring Russia from the Rio Games that start on August 5 over bombshell doping revelations.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Thursday rejected an appeal by Russia’s track and field team against a suspension from Rio in a decision seen as a key indicator as the IOC debates whether to kick out the whole Russian team.

Russia is a sporting powerhouse whose absence from Rio would create the biggest crisis in decades for the Olympic movement and Moscow is banking on the IOC rejecting a total ban.

•Text from ngrguardiannews.com. Photo shows Putin

Source Daily Sports

Posted July 23, 2016

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