System of recognizing substances as doping, disqualification of athletes for them should be free from judgment call - Medvedev
MOSCOW. Aug 23 (Interfax) - The system of recognizing the various substances as doping and disqualification of the athletes should be transparent for everybody and free from judgment call, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said.
"The system itself of recognizing a substance as doping and disqualification of an athlete, which Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke of recently, should be absolutely transparent for everyone using it, free from judgment call and applicable to everybody in the same manner at any moment," he wrote on Facebook, commenting the CAS decision to ban the Russian national team from the Paralympic Games.
He pointed out that currently the situation is entirely different and "it is lamentable for sports."
The fight against doping is necessary, "at the same time stimulating an athlete's energy by lawful means, including the provision of medicine," he said.
"But the question emerges, what is doping? And where do lawful means end and illegal ones begin?" he said.
Despite different definitions existing in statutory documents and decisions of court, it is obvious that there is no clear answer to that question, he said.
He provided an example of the situation with meldonium.
"One may certainly think that doping is what WADA considers as doping. But that does not guarantee the absence of errors," he said.