Moscow City Court restores bobsledder Zubkov's Olympic champion status inside Russia
MOSCOW. Nov 21 (Interfax) - Moscow City Court has sided with the Russian Bobsleigh Federation's President Alexander Zubkov by proclaiming the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) decision on the athlete to be invalid in Russia, an Interfax correspondent reported from the courtroom.
"The court ruled that the claimant's demand of non-recognition of the CAS ruling in the case of Alexander Zubkov against the International Olympic Committee should be satisfied," judge Ilnar Basyrov said, reading out the ruling.
The IOC and Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) representatives, who attended the hearing, had requested closure of the case. The IOC lawyer said the CAS was impossible to divide and must be enforced. The request was rejected.
Zubkov's defense team said the CAS decision caused him material losses. Having been stripped of the Sochi Olympics champion's title, he no longer received the lifelong stipend paid to Olympic champions. The lawyer had asked the court to recognize the CAS decision's invalidity in Russia and exempt him from compliance.
In November 2017 the IOC commission permanently barred Zubkov from Olympics permanently and annulled his Sochi results for doping.
Later the CAS overturned the disqualification but upheld the annulment of Zubkov's 2014 Olympics results: two golden medals, in two-man and four-man bobsleigh.