The situation with the disqualification of Russian athletes ahead of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro is entirely due to political reasons – the West's desire to remove Russia from participation in the Olympics and other international competitions and spoil image. This opinion was expressed today by Russian athletes whose participation in the Olympic Games is up in the air now, as well as their defenders in an interview with a 'Vestnik Kavkaza' correspondent.
For example, the world vice-champion in weightlifting, three-time winner of Russian championships in weightlifting, Vladimir Laptev, said that it is dishones in respect of Russian athletes to use their old samples for doping, although the rules of the game and the technology has changed and WADA should check only new samples.
Athlete Ildar Minshin stressed that it is too difficult for Russians to perform at international competitions due to an overabundance of control by the anti-doping services.
According to him, WADA's attention is focused on Russians due to political rather than sporting reasons. "I think this is due to the policy. It is even not clear now who will participate in the Olympics in Rio. We are up in the air now,'' Ildar Minshin underlined.
Lawyer of Russian athletes Ivan Melnikov also said that the situation around the doping tests of Russian athletes is in the sphere of politics. "Foreign colleagues are trying to put pressure on Russia. It is no secret that now we are in a state of information war, and sport is one of the achievements of any country because it shows the strength of the country. With the help of these tweaks they found our weak spots and started to beat," he said.
The lawyer expressed confidence that Russian athletes are under the anti-doping repression. The majority of them did not take doping. "They are not to blame it's just the pressure by foreign colleagues on them. Certainly, if we speak about the IAAF, the leadership of the organization should resign after such scandals because it is discrimination in respect of our athletes. IAAF focused all their efforts to revise the Olympics results of Russia's national team, trying to prove that we are dishonest. It is impolitely and unsportsmanlike,'' Ivan Melnikov concluded.
