International Press writes about Russia’s disqualification from Olympic. The articles focus on the fact that Russian athletes, who are allowed to participate in the Pyeongchang games, will compete in neutral uniform, but none of the Olympic medals will be recorded on the Russia score. Outlets underline that despite the occurred fact, former sports minister and current Russian deputy prime minister Vitaly Mutko still remains in charge of the World Cup.
The New York Times – The official record books will forever show that Russia won zero medals
“Russia’s Olympic team has been barred from the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The country’s government officials are forbidden to attend, its flag will not be displayed at the opening ceremony and its anthem will not sound.
Any athletes from Russia who receive special dispensation to compete will do so as individuals wearing a neutral uniform, and the official record books will forever show that Russia won zero medals.
That was the punishment issued Tuesday to the proud sports juggernaut that has long used the Olympics as a show of global force but was exposed for systematic doping in previously unfathomable ways. The International Olympic Committee, after completing its own prolonged investigations that reiterated what had been known for more than a year, handed Russia penalties for doping so severe they were without precedent in Olympics history.
The ruling was the final confirmation that the nation was guilty of executing an extensive state-backed doping program. The scheme was rivaled perhaps only by the notorious program conducted by East Germany throughout the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s.
Now the sports world will wait to see how Russia responds. Some Russian officials had threatened to boycott if the I.O.C. delivered such a severe punishment.”
The Guardian – Vitaly Mutko still in charge of the World Cup
The decision to ban Russia from the Winter Olympics has been welcomed but with Vitaly Mutko still in charge of the World Cup and the IOC’s president talking of ‘moving on’ there is a sense the country has got off lightly.
For too long the International Olympic Committee has shown a strange reluctance to prosecute Russian doping. No matter how staggering the evidence, or loud the cries for justice, its president, Thomas Bach, has resisted sanctions. On Tuesday in Lausanne, however, the IOC finally had no choice but to act. The truth had at last overwhelmed its diffidence – and defences.
It came from the former president of Switzerland Samuel Schmid, who confirmed there had been “systemic manipulation” of anti-doping results at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, and elsewhere, by the Russian state – and the evidence was not only extensive but “watertight”. Even Bach, a good friend of the Russia president, Vladimir Putin, felt compelled to call it an “unprecedented attack on the integrity of the Olympic Games and sport”.
Given the breathtaking extent of their crimes, some will believe the punishments should have been deeper and the fines far steeper. Russia was, in effect, convicted of state-sponsored doping over a thousand athletes in 30 sports after all. Meanwhile Mutko somehow remains in charge of next year’s World Cup, which will be held in Russia.”
The Dailymail – FIFA World Cup chief Vitaly Mutko hit with lifetime Olympic ban as IOC kick Russia out of the Winter Games
A ban from all future Olympic Games for former sports minister and current Russian deputy prime minister Vitaly Mutko is hugely embarrassing for FIFA ahead of next summer’s World Cup.
Mutko remains the president of Russian football and only last week he shared a stage with FIFA president Gianni Infantino as the head of the World Cup organising committee. FIFA said the sanctions had ‘no impact on the preparations’ for the World Cup and would not comment on the action against Mutko.
Thomas Bach was asked if he would attend the World Cup final in Moscow next July as a guest of FIFA. ‘I don’t have an invitation but when the invitation comes I will decide,’ he said.
The Telegraph – Will Vitaly Mutko be replaced as head of the country’s World Cup organising committee
Russian deputy prime minister Vitaly Mutko, who was sports minister at the time of the scandal, was also handed a lifetime Olympic ban, something that could lead to calls for him to be replaced as head of the country’s World Cup organising committee.
However, the report found insufficient evidence he personally orchestrated the scheme or had knowledge of it, despite the publication last week of the diaries of the former director of the Moscow laboratory which allege meetings and conversations with Mutko about it.
