Russia agrees road map with IAAF – sports minister

Published 11/14/2015, 1:12 PM EST

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has agreed a road map with the International Association of Athletics Federations and would be compliant with its rules within three months, Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said on Saturday.

“In three months, we will once again go to the international federation to present ourselves as compliant with its standards,” Mutko told Russian television in an interview.

“We hope our team will be reinstated.”

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Mutko said doping was a global problem and Russia had first told the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) the IAAF was hiding samples.

“The problem is not Russian athletics, it’s a global problem. And what’s more, it started with Russia because we first informed WADA that the International Association of Athletics Federations hid samples for decades,” he told the Vesti on Saturday programme on state TV channel Rossiya.

Mutko also echoed comments from the Russian and International Olympic Committees earlier on Saturday that Russian athletes would compete at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

“These athletes who cheat should be punished,” he said. “But healthy sportsmen, clean sportsmen must be protected.

(Reporting by Jack Stubbs, Editing by Ed Osmond)

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Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.