"Russia is a great sporting nation and without them being here they are missed in a sporting sense… But we can't have nations competing when their performances have been tarnished by what's gone on before," Craven said.
On August 7, 2016, Craven announced the IPC's decision to suspend Russian Paralympic athletes from the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games as well as to deprive the Russian Paralympic committee from the right to be an IPC member, which hampers Russian athletes’ participation in the qualifications, conducted ahead of the Pyeongchang 2018 Paralympic Winter Games.
The move followed the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) accusations toward Russia of running a state-wide doping program.
On January 13, IPC Media and Communications Director Craig Spence told R-Sport he would report on the progress in the Russian Paralympic committee’s reestablishing its membership of the IPC in late January.
