Mutko not mentioned in WADA report as person directly involved - Peskov
MOSCOW. July 18 (Interfax) - A report on doping in Russia of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Independent Commission does not mention Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko as a person directly involved in this, the Kremlin said.
"Mutko is not mentioned in the report as the direct perpetrator," the Russian president's press secretary Dmitry Peskov told Interfax when asked whether the minister is affected by the president's decision to suspend officials mentioned in the WADA report.
On Monday evening the Kremlin released the Russian president's statement which said that the officials named in the report as persons directly involved will be suspended until the inquiry is completed. "However, for taking a final decision on liability of the relevant officials, we ask the WADA to present fuller, objective information based on facts in order to take it into account in the investigation by the Russian law enforcement and investigative bodies," the statement said.
Meanwhile Peskov told the Izvestia newspaper earlier that the president's decision to suspend officials concerned Deputy Sports Minister Yury Nagornykh.
The head of the WADA independent commission, Richard McLaren unveiled the findings of the inquiry into doping in Russia at a press conference in Toronto on Monday. He said that the Sports Ministry covered up doping practices by Russian athletes and that samples taken from the Russian athletes who participated in the Sochi Olympics, were moved to the FSB and Deputy Minister Nagornykh was involved in this.
The commission established that sample swapping was a regular occurrence during the training of the Russian national team, and the Sports Ministry was involved in such work, Richard McLaren, head of the WADA commission, said while presenting the report. In 2013, the samples were moved to a secret FSB building not far from the Sochi laboratory, as was already stated, with Deputy Sports Minister Nagornykh involved in such work, McLaren said, according to the Russian translation on the Rossiya-24 (VGTRK) television channel.
