Russia Intends to Continue State-Level Anti-Doping Fight

Russia has and will continue to fight doping at a state level, the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) said in a statement Tuesday, voicing support for strict measures against those who use and aid in the usage of doping and vowing to defend clean athletes.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The ROC said WADA’s Independent Person Report released by investigator Richard McLaren on Monday was "so serious as to require a full investigation with the participation of all parties involved." It said it was willing to provide full assistance to any international organization involved in the probe as an adherent to anti-doping efforts.

"Russia fought at the state level and will continue to fight against doping, constantly toughening penalties for illegal activity in this field, carrying out the principle of the inevitability of punishment," the ROC said.

The committee said it disagreed with McLaren’s opinion that a possible ban on hundreds of clean Russian athletes from participating in the Olympic Games is an admissible consequence of the charges set forth in the commission’s report. The ROC argued that the fate of clean athletes hinged on charges based on evidence provided by a lone figure, Grigory Rodchenkov, the former Moscow anti-doping lab director.

"Basing [charges] only on the testimony of a man who himself is at the center of the criminal scheme he had created endangers not only the career and the fate of many honest athletes, but also the integrity of the international Olympic movement," the ROC stressed.

It expressed full support toward "the most drastic measures against those who use or abet the usage of doping," maintaining that its "principled position" is to defend the rights of clean athletes.