Mutko believes that accusations of doping against Russian athletes are politicized attacks / Andrey Gordeyev / Vedomosti

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko has suspended his duties as President of the Russian Football Union (RFU) for six months. RFU CEO Alexander Alaev will temporarily act as his acting President.

Mutko may also leave his post as chairman of the Russia-2018 organizing committee, since it is logical to “remain in a government position and leave public positions” (quoted by Interfax). He stated that he will work as a deputy prime minister, overseeing Russia’s preparations for the World Cup.

The Deputy Prime Minister promised to challenge the lifelong ban from participating in the Olympics in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne. "I have decided to file an application with CAS tomorrow, we are thinking about how to do this," the official noted.

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Mutko believes that accusations against Russian athletes of doping are politicized attacks. "The successes and prestige of our athletes are being discredited, although there are no grounds for this. We must proceed from the fact that the entire anti-doping system in Russian doping is well-established," the Deputy Prime Minister said.

He acknowledged that there were cases of abuse by certain individuals. Mutko also noted that it is unknown who Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, "was friends with and how he made money", when he "decided to turn everyone in". According to Mutko, it is impossible to base an indictment on the words of such a person. However, it was "based on this person's data and additional conclusions" that 46 athletes were accused of violating anti-doping rules, he noted. Mutko promised support for the suspended athletes. "We will challenge all of this," he concluded.

On December 5, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) banned Mutko for life from participating as an official representative of Russia in the Olympics. In addition, the IOC Executive Board temporarily suspended the membership of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC). At the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, the Russian team will not be able to compete under the national flag. Only "clean" Russian athletes will be allowed to compete, who will have to compete under a neutral flag.

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"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

Mutko suspends work as RFU president