Moscow to Continue Work to Protect Interests of Russian Olympic Athletes

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia will continue to undertake legal measures in protecting the interests of Russian athletes and the Russian national team at the upcoming 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.

"Of course, in legal terms, all that is possible to do to protect the interests of our athletes and the Russian national Olympic team, all this will continue to be done, it's very important. However, again, there has been full cooperation with all relevant international sports organizations and entities," Peskov told reporters.

The comment comes ahead of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) decision on Russian athletes' participation in the upcoming games, which is due later on Friday. On Wednesday, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) released a report alleging that a number of Russian athletes' doping tests could not be collected by anti-doping officials, hundreds of tests were canceled or declined, over 20 tests were missed and over 50 were found to contain banned substances.

International cooperation on the matter has been directly ordered by the Russian president within the context of countering doping practices and investigating those suspected of using banned substances, Peskov stressed.

In December 2014, German ARD channel released a film titled "The Doping Secret: How Russia Creates Champions" on alleged doping abuse and corruption in Russian sports. The film was followed up by documentaries with further allegations.

Following the release of the film, WADA launched an investigation into the allegations of doping abuse in Russian sports. In November 2015, WADA's Independent Commission issued a report accusing Russia of numerous breaches of global anti-doping regulations. The IAAF temporarily suspended the Russian Athletic Federation's membership as a result.

The Russian authorities have promised to carry out a clean-up program to fulfill the WADA demands in order for the country's athletes to be allowed to participate in the 2016 Olympics.