The new head of the Russian Olympic Committee, former fencer Stanislav Pozdnyakov, on Tuesday pledged to take “concrete steps” to “restore trust” in doping-tainted Russian sport.
“Restoring trust in our sport depends on concrete steps. All events will take place under the auspices of the International Olympic Committee,” Pozdnyakov said, Russian agencies reported. “We will pay the closest attention to restoring trust in our sport. The participation of our team in its entirety in the Olympic Games is among our priorities.”
In a statement ahead of the vote, Russian President Vladimir Putin called for officials to restore Moscow’s place in international sport.
Photo: AFP
“It is important to ensure the restoration of our position in the international sports movement, to actively participate in the work of international federations and to continue working on improving the effectiveness of anti-doping systems,” Putin said in a statement published on the Kremlin’s Web site.
“It is necessary to give priority to the formation of an absolute no-tolerance culture to this negative phenomenon at all levels of sports training,” he added.
However, the Kremlin has consistently denied a report by the World Anti-Doping Agency that accused Moscow of state-sponsored doping between 2011 and 2015.
Senior Russian sports officials in a letter to international sports leaders last week admitted to “some unacceptable manipulations of the anti-doping system” and the existence of a “systemic doping scheme.”
The letter was signed by Russian Minister of Sport Pavel Kolobkov, outgoing committee president Alexander Zhukov and Russian Paralympic Committee president Vladimir Lukin.
The letter described the doping as “systemic,” but does not use the word “institutional.”
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