Moscow Against Casting Shadow on Olympic Champions, Kremlin Says

Moscow is against casting a shadow on the entire sports society in Russia over a few athletes suspected of doping,the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – At the same time, Russia supports the Sports Ministry’s position on its readiness to fight against the use of doping and to back those athletes who are performing in honest competitions: 

"I would nonetheless be oriented on the statements that have already been shared by our Sports Ministry and Sports Minister [Vitaly] Mutko. They have said, and we completely support this position, of their complete openness to investigations, and they said they plan to fight against the use of doping, but will fight individually so that these types of investigations or any other type of actions don’t cast a shadow on our champions, on our athletes, who are participating in honest competitions," Peskov told journalists. 

"We treat… the extraterritorial application of American courts jurisdiction with skepticism and a certain degree of resentment," Peskov said.

US media reported this month, citing former director of the Russia-based anti-doping laboratory Grigory Rodchenkov, that dozens of Russian athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, including at least 15 medal winners and the entire women’s hockey team, were doping throughout the Games as part of a "state-run program." WADA has launched a probe into the claims.

In November 2015, the World Anti-Doping Agency's Independent Commission issued a report accusing Russia of numerous breaches of global anti-doping regulations, and recommended banning Russia from international athletics competitions.

The Russian authorities have promised to carry out a clean-up program to fulfil the WADA demands in order for country's athletes to be allowed to participate in the 2016 Olympics.