MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin called Tuesday for sports officials to restore Moscow’s place in international sport and implement a “culture of no tolerance” to doping ahead of a vote to elect a new head of Russia’s Olympic Committee. He added that “it is necessary to give priority to the formation of an absolute no tolerance culture to this negative phenomenon at all stages of sports training.”The Kremlin has consistently denied a report by the World Anti-Doping Agency that accused Moscow of state-sponsored doping between 2011 and 2015, including at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. But some senior Russian sports officials admitted to “some unacceptable manipulations of the anti-doping system” and the existence of a “systemic doping scheme” in a letter to international sports leaders last week. It was signed by Russian minister of sport Pavel Kolobkov, outgoing Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) president Alexander Zhukov and Russian Paralympic Committee president Vladimir Lukin. Putin also thanked the ROC’s Zhukov “for his work in defending the interests of Russian sport” after eight years in charge.

Source: New Strait Times May 29, 2018 11:03 UTC