Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said the ban on his country from competing at the Rio de Janeiro Paralympics was immoral and inhumane.
Russia was suspended on Aug. 7 over what International Paralympic Committee president Philip Craven called a “medals over morals” culture with evidence of state-sponsored doping. The ban was confirmed on Tuesday when the Court of Arbitration of Sport rejected a Russian appeal.
Speaking to Olympic athletes at the Kremlin, Putin said the “decision to disqualify our Paralympians is outside the bounds of law, morality and humanity.”
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Russia’s Paralympic Committee on Wednesday said there was still a chance Russians could compete at the Rio Paralympics, but remained vague on the legal measures it would take in the hope of overturning the country’s suspension.
“The Russian Paralympic Committee believes that Russian athletes still have a chance to take part in the Games,” the committee said in a statement.
The committee’s president, Vladimir Lukin, declined to elaborate on the legal steps it was pondering to contest the rejection of Tuesday’s suspension appeal.
“We are using all possible measures to prove that we are right and that our opponents are wrong,” Lukin said, adding that legal means to challenge the rejection of the appeal would become clear “in a day or two.”
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday slammed the rejection of Russia’s appeal as a “cynical decision,” accusing members of the international Paralympic movement of trying to “remove strong rivals.”
Special competitions will be organized in Russia for banned Paralympic athletes, with winners getting the same prizes they would have had from success in Rio.
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