The Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) said that the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) decision to suspend Russian athletes applies not only to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro but also to the Winter Olympics in South Korea in 2018.

The RPC expressed the need “to respond as soon as possible to the allegations against the Center for the Training of Russian National Teams” and to clarify the reason for the suspension of the RPC’s membership in the IPC.

The IPC decision makes it clear that the Russian Paralympic Committee has not fulfilled obligations to respect “the IPC Anti-Doping Code and the World Anti-Doping Code.” According to the IPC, the Center for the Training of Russian National Teams is involved in the promotion of doping among elite Paralympic athletes and has worked together with the Federal Security Service (FSB) to cover-up information about athletes who have taken banned substances.

“It is unthinkable to suggest that [Russian Minister of Sport ] Vitaly Mutko did not know about the cover-up of doping…After the transfer of the samples, operatives illegally opened them, and the ‘dirty’ samples were destroyed. These same bottles were cleaned, and the ‘clean’ urine samples were poured into the bottles. After this operation, the bottles containing ‘pure samples’ were closed and passed back through the hole in the wall of the laboratory,” the CEO of IPC, Xavier Gonzalez, described, referencing a possible process of sample substitution. According to him, “it’s impossible to believe” that Mutko did not know about the concealment of the doping scheme.

  Russia, Doping

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