MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, the IOC ruled against a blanket ban on the entire Russian team and left it to the respective international federations to decide on whether individual Russian athletes will be participating in the Rio Olympics.
"The decision made by the IOC was balanced; based on the report of the WADA [World Anti-Doping Agency] independent commission, it is objective and benefiting global sport and unity of the Olympic family. We are grateful to the IOC for such a decision," Mutko told R-Sport.
Mutko added that he is certain the majority of international sports federations have "no issues" with the Russian athletes.
"Of course, the decision of the Executive Committee of the IOC is difficult for us, while the Olympic Games-2016 are set to start so soon…. In this case, the application of the Russian team is available, it is very necessary to quickly renegotiate it with international federations and I am sure that most of the international federations have no issues with Russian athletes."
Russia Ready to Reshape Anti-Doping System Supervised by Independent Committee
Russia is ready to reshape its anti-doping system under supervision of an independent committee, Russian Sport Minister Vitaly Mutko said on Sunday.
"Russia did and will do its best to tackle doping. But it cannot go on alone, this is a joint work. Under the auspices of an independent committee we are ready to reshape the entire system, to make it more independent," Mutko told R-Sport.
"We are sure that the majority of Russian athletes are absolutely clean," he added.