"The WADA report makes Russia’s disqualification very probable," the Kommersant newspaper suggested, while Gazeta.ru headlined their story "why Russia has already lost the Games".- AFP It did not say which officials would be affected.However, Mutko and his deputy Yury Nagornykh were among those named in the report.Russian media appeared resigned to a blanket ban in Rio. "’Failsafe’ cheatingMcLaren said his team uncovered forensic evidence that proved Rodchenkov’s claims.The Canadian lawyer said the coverup started in 2010 after Russia’s "abysmal" results at the Vancouver Winter Olympics and continued until 2015 after the Sochi Games. A damning report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) detailed an elaborate cheating scheme that affected 30 sports with help from the FSB state intelligence agency.After the report was released by lead investigator Canadian law professor Richard McLaren, top sport figures from across the globe called for all Russian competitors to be banned from Rio Games which start on August 5.IOC president Thomas Bach said Russia’s actions were "a shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sports and on the Olympic Games. It included the 2013 World Athletics Championships in Moscow and 2013 World University Games in Kazan.At Sochi, the FSB helped Rodchenkov’s staff destroy supposedly tamper-proof urine samples that would have seen a Russian athlete caught doping and swapping them for clean ones, according to the report.The ploy involved a "clean urine bank" that was full of Russian competitors’ samples and later secretly transported by the FSB from Moscow to an FSB building located handily next to the Sochi Olympic testing laboratory, the report said.McLaren said Russia’s sport ministry "directed, controlled and oversaw," the scheme, which he termed "state-dictated failsafe system" designed to let the country’s competitors cheat.The Kremlin said officials named in the report would be suspended, but also denounced the "dangerous" interference of politics in sport.

Source: The Nation Bangkok July 19, 2016 12:11 UTC