"Firstly, we must say frankly that we ourselves are partly to blame for this, because we gave a pretext for this [dismissal of the team]. And secondly, I believe that this pretext was used in a not entirely honest way, to put it mildly," Putin said / Mikhail Klimentyev / TASS

The International Olympic Committee's (IOC) decision to disqualify the Russian Olympic team from the 2018 Olympics is unfair, but Russia itself is partly to blame for it being taken, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a conversation with GAZ workers on Wednesday. According to him, the authorities will not prevent Russian athletes from participating in competitions in a neutral status.

"Firstly, we must say frankly that we ourselves are partly to blame for this, because we gave a pretext for this [disqualification of the team]. And secondly, I believe that this pretext was used in a not entirely honest manner, to put it mildly," Putin said. According to the president, the IOC "not entirely honestly" applied the principle of collective responsibility in relation to the team. "Not a single legal system in the world provides for collective responsibility," Putin pointed out (quotes from Interfax).

According to the president, most of the accusations “are based on facts that have not been proven in any way and are largely unfounded”; they are derived from the testimony of a person [Grigory Rodchenkov], “whose moral and ethical principles and mental state raise many questions; there is simply nothing else.”

Russians are ready to watch the Olympics without the Russian team

Technologies / Media

It should be noted that during yesterday's IOC press conference, Samuel Schmid, head of the commission investigating the existence of a system of circumventing anti-doping tests in Russia, particularly emphasized that its conclusions are based not only on the testimony of the former head of the Russian anti-doping center. He also noted that there is no evidence of a connection between the Russian leadership and this system.

It was decided not to interfere

The Russian authorities have decided not to prevent Russian athletes from being sent to the 2018 Olympics in a neutral status, Putin said. "We will certainly not declare any blockade, we will not prevent our Olympians from participating [in the Olympics], if any of them want to participate in a personal capacity. Many guys - I know them personally - have been working towards this competition throughout their entire lives... Based on these considerations, we will not prohibit anyone from doing anything," the president said, speaking with GAZ workers.

Putin emphasized that he did not set the goal of winning the team event at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi either. "I never set the goal for, say, the Ministry of Sports, for other organizations, for federations to win the Olympics. There was no such goal!" the president said. According to Putin, Russia "had another super-goal" - to prepare and hold the Games with dignity, both for Russian athletes and sports fans, and for foreign ones. And Russia "brilliantly coped with this super-goal," he noted.

Removal

The IOC Executive Board decided to suspend the membership of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) yesterday, stating that the results of the work of the commissions verifying Rodchenkov's data showed the existence of an organized system of circumventing anti-doping tests in Russia. Only "clean" Russian athletes without a history of disqualifications and doping violations will be able to compete at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, under a neutral flag. The list of Russian athletes admitted to the 2018 Olympics will be compiled by a special commission of three officials from WADA, DFSU (the anti-doping unit of the SportAccord convention, Doping Free Sport Unit) and the IOC, chaired by Valerie Fourneyron, head of the recently created independent doping testing organization (ITA).

All officials of the Russian Ministry of Sports have been stripped of their accreditation for the Olympics. ROC President Alexander Zhukov has been excluded from the IOC. Former Minister of Sports, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Vitaly Mutko has been suspended for life. The ROC has been fined $15 million, which will go toward improving the anti-doping system.

How Russia reacted to the Olympic disqualification 1 / 15

"Firstly, we must say frankly that we ourselves are partly to blame for this, because we gave a pretext for this [disqualification of the team]. And secondly, I believe that this pretext was used in a not entirely honest way, to put it mildly," Putin said. According to the president, the IOC "not entirely honestly" applied the principle of collective responsibility in relation to the team. "Not a single legal system in the world provides for collective responsibility," Putin said (quotes from Interfax) / AFP

Putin admits Russia's partial guilt in Olympic disqualification