The president of the International Biathlon Union will arrive in Moscow for an international sports forum on July 29 to discuss anti-doping measures along with the other issues.
"For me this issue [fighting doping cases] is particularly important, because I am not only the IBU president, but a member of the International anti-doping committee," Anders Besseberg said in a telephone interview with RIA Novosti.
He said that "over the recent years, Russian athletes had doping-related problems in many kinds of sports."
The IBU head welcomed the recently created anti-doping committee within the Russian Biathlon Union (RBU) calling it "a step in the right direction."
"I highly value the fact that Russian sports authorities pay a lot of attention to fighting with this issue [doping cases]," Besseberg said.
Besseberg said that IBU tightly cooperates with RBU executive head Sergei Kushchenko over doping-related cases.
The IBU president said Russia has always been a leading country in biathlon and "it is hard to understand what all these doping scandals were caused by."
Besseberg said Russia has always had good athletic traditions and athletes, but recently has lacked in "sport culture," particularly in fighting doping.
VIENNA, May 19 (RIA Novosti)