Bannig Russia From Rio Games Will be a Disaster for Olympic Movement

The International Olympic Committee is unlikely to ban the Russian team from participating in the 2016 Rio Olympics amid World Anti-Doping Agency's report, as this would lead to catastrophic consequences for the whole Olympic movement, ex-President of the Olympic Committee of Armenia Ruben Hakobyan told Sputnik on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Monday, an independent commission led by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren presented a report, accusing Russia of having run a state-sponsored doping program. WADA then called on the IOC o consider declining entries from all athletes submitted by the Russian Olympic and Paralympic committees for the upcoming Olympic Games.

"WADA report and recommendations are non-binding for IOC. I believe that the International Olympic Committee is unlikely to ban Russia from the Rio Games as this would mean a catastrophe for the Olympic movement," Ruben Hakobyan said.

The Executive Board of IOC is scheduled to convene a telephone conference on Tuesday to discuss possible measures and sanctions in regard to participation of Russia's athletes in the Rio Olympics.

Following the report release, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would carry out an investigation of allegations, adding that  officials implicated in it as direct perpetrators of doping violations would be suspended through course of investigation. Putin also called on WADA to provide full, factual and objective information so that the country’s law enforcers could take it into the account in their investigation.

On Tuesday, Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said that four Russian sports officials named in the WADA report claiming state-sanctioned doping have been temporarily suspended from their duties.