Putin instructed the government to develop an anti-doping program

Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed the government to work out a program to combat doping, reports . RIA Novosti

“I ask the government to work on these and other issues to improve the effectiveness of the national anti-doping system and submit relevant proposals,” Putin said.

The President called for tougher penalties for anti-doping rule violations. Putin noted that one should not politicize the situation with the illegal drug meldonium and come up with a "conspiracy theory."

“If you didn’t have data on how quickly this drug is excreted from the human body, then it was necessary to carry out appropriate work, get in touch with colleagues from WADA and discuss all this with them in advance,” Putin said.

Meldonium was included in the list of banned drugs from January 1, 2016. At the moment, the names of 8 Russian athletes who have not passed doping tests are known. We are talking about tennis player Maria Sharapova, biathlete Eduard Latypov, cyclist Eduard Vorganov, figure skater Ekaterina Bobrova, speed skater Pavel Kulizhnikov, short track skaters Semyon Elistratov and Ekaterina Konstantinova and volleyball player Alexander Markin.