Off the wire
• Full text: Chronology of Human Rights Violations of the United States in 2015 (5)  • Environment ministry investigates contaminated water in Jiangxi  • Full text: Chronology of Human Rights Violations of the United States in 2015 (6)  • Full text: Chronology of Human Rights Violations of the United States in 2015 (7)  • Ukraine forms new parliamentary coalition  • Feature: China-funded project yields better rice harvest In Cote d'Ivoire  • Full text: Chronology of Human Rights Violations of the United States in 2015 (4)  • Full text: Chronology of Human Rights Violations of the United States in 2015 (1)  • Full text: Chronology of Human Rights Violations of the United States in 2015 (3)  • Full text: Chronology of Human Rights Violations of the United States in 2015 (2)  
You are here: 　 Home

Putin calls for fair treatment to Russian athletes by int'l sports organizations

Xinhua, April 14, 2016 Adjust font size:

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday vowed to protect Russian athletes against unfair decisions made by international sports organizations.

Russia will fight so all decisions would be fairly made on participation of Russian athletes in Olympics, said Putin during his annual live Q-and-A session with the Russian public.

"Russian Sports Ministry, our sports organizations are working with international lawyers to assess all aspects of this problem," Putin said.

The president said it is necessary to improve joint work with international sports organizations so as to react to their demands on time and in a better way.

Meanwhile, Putin ruled out politicized factors in doping scandals involving meldonium, a drug used to treat various heart diseases and banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) from Jan. 1 this year.

According to the president, majority of athletes involved "have no relation to the meldonium scandals."

"We know now that WADA is revising some of its approaches to the use of meldonium, studying not only its clinical features, but also its excretion from the body," Putin said.

The drug was considered by WADA to be a metabolic modulator that increases athletes' endurance and shortens post-exercise rehabilitation time, as well as enhances central nervous system activation.

So far, over 30 Russian athletes have tested positive for meldonium use including tennis star Maria Sharapova, while over 100 meldonium cases were recorded by WADA worldwide since the ban came into force.

Russian media reported Wednesday that WADA had issued a statement saying that it is permissible if a doping test of an athlete carried out before March 1, 2016 showed a meldonium concentration of below 1 microgram per milligram. Endit