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05 December 2017Russia has been excluded from the Pyeongchang 2018 winter games and the Russian Olympic Committee (Roc) has been suspended with immediate effect: the president of the IOC, Thomas Bach, announced it at the end of the executive committee - meeting in Lausanne - which analyzed the results of the report on the so-called 'state doping' and from which emerged the "systematic manipulation of the anti-doping rules and system in Russia".

Only "clean" Russian athletes under the Olympic flag
In South Korea they will be able to participate - at the invitation of a special panel chaired by Valerie Fourneyron - of "clean" independent Russian athletes who have shown that they have not been involved in state doping. They will be able to compete under the Olympic flag in a team called "Olympic Athlete from Russia", with a neutral uniform and without a Russian anthem (but the Olympic one) in case of victory.

Bach: from Moscow unprecedented attack on the integrity of sport
In any case, the IOC, in its absolute discretion, will determine the athletes to be invited. "It was an unprecedented attack on the integrity of the Olympic games and sport," Bach commented, pointing out that "the executive committee issued proportionate sanctions for this systematic manipulation while protecting clean athletes after following due process" .

The Russian Minister of Sport is excluded for life
The other decisions of the IOC executive committee are also very heavy: sporting minister Vitaly Mutko and his then deputy minister, Yuri Nagornykh, were excluded for life from the Olympics; relieved of his role in the Beijing Organizing Committee 2022 Dmitry Chernyshenko, CEO of the 2014 Sochi Committee, suspension for the president of the Russian Olympic Committee Alexander Zhukov (who is also a CIO member due to his office); $ 15 million fine imposed on the Russian Olympic Committee for expenses incurred by the IOC for independent investigations and controls. The IOC reserves the right to partially or totally revoke the suspension of the Roc before the closing ceremony of the PyeongChang 2018 Games, provided that the decisions are fully respected and implemented.

"Systematic manipulation of antidoping"
The decision comes after a report confirmed "the systematic manipulation of the anti-doping rules and system in Russia, through the positive Disappearing Methodology and during the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games, as well as the various levels of administrative, legal and contractual responsibility , deriving from the failure to respect the respective obligations of the various entities involved ". And the eclipse occurs 18 months after refusing the Russian athletes' stop at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics: on the occasion, the international sports federations were left with the possibility of individually deciding on the participation of the Russians in Brazil.

Russian Committee: IOC unprecedented decision . Announced appeal
The IOC's decision not to admit Russia to the 2018 Olympics in South Korea "has no precedent in Olympic history," said the head of the Russian Olympic Committee, Aleksandr Zhukov at a press conference. And he announced that Russian athletes will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. This was reported by the R-Sport news agency.

Lebedev: boycott the Games
The news comes when it is evening in Moscow: the first reactions are those of the vice-president of the Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament, Alexander Lebedev, according to which "Russia should boycott the next Olympic Winter Games since it can participate without being able to compete with the own flag means to be humiliated ", while the Russian state television reports that it will not broadcast the Pyeongchang Games, in the absence of the Russian national team.

Moscow's anger
Politicians and officials of Russian sports organizations reacted with disappointment and anger at the sanctions applied by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to the country's sport for systematic doping, with exclusion from the 2018 Winter Games. "I am shocked," he said to the Interfax press agency the president of the Russian cross-country skiing association, Jelena Välbe. "Every athlete will have to decide for himself," Välbe explained. Meanwhile, Dmitri Svishchev, head of the curling federation, said the measure should be appealed. "This decision can and must be challenged, because it determines the fate of an entire generation of athletes and coaches".