“I would like to once again assure you that Russia fully supports fighting doping,” Mutko wrote. The country’s track federation was indefinitely suspended last year after a World Anti-Doping Agency report presented evidence of widespread cheating. “Russia has done everything that [the] IAAF independent commission has rightly asked of us in order to be reinstated to athletic competition,” Mutko wrote. In recent months, the Russians have overhauled the leadership of their track federation, offered to establish additional testing and allowed independent experts to observe their national anti-doping agency. As international track officials met in Vienna for a crucial vote on Friday, Russia’s top sports official made one last plea to have the ban on his track team lifted in time for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Source: Los Angeles Times June 17, 2016 14:15 UTC