Russia may consider establishing a new anti-doping agency, the sports minister said Friday ahead of an International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) meeting that could discuss suspending Russia over doping allegations.
Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko told R-Sport news agency that Moscow was ready to reform or “create a new anti-doping organisation” if the IAAF or the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) demanded it.
A report published by a WADA independent commission on Monday aired bombshell allegations of systematic doping among track and field athletes and large-scale corruption in Russia.
The WADA-led commission said Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA’s doping control officers had “routinely” accepted bribes from athletes to ensure their doping tests would be found negative, among other damning findings.
The head of Moscow’s anti-doping laboratory resigned on Tuesday after the facility was suspended by WADA, the first scalp to be claimed by the scandal engulfing Russian athletics.
The IAAF is due to hold a conference-call meeting on Friday having told Moscow to respond to the allegations contained in a no-holds-barred report.
Russia’s athletics federation said it sent its response to the report to the IAAF Thursday evening aimed at proving the country’s “innocence”.
Moscow’s reaction to the scandal has been mixed with some officials dismissing the accusations as “groundless” while President Vladimir Putin ordered his sports authorities to crack down on any wrongdoing.
Russia’s Olympic Committee head Alexander Zhukov on Thursday flew to Switzerland to meet with International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.