Moscow (AFP)

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday appointed Oleg Matytsin as the new Sports Minister to replace Pavel Kolobkov at a time when the country is facing the ban of world sport due to a vast doping scandal.

Russia was excluded in December by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for four years from all international sports competitions for having falsified anti-doping data, yet another twist in a scandal that started with the revelation in 2015 of institutional doping practiced since 2011 and involving senior officials, secret agents and trafficked urine vials. The Russian authorities challenged this decision before the Sports Arbitral Tribunal.

The head of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada), Iouri Ganous, had then found the Russian sports authorities guilty in this scandal, asking Vladimir Putin for a big sweep so that a merciless fight against cheaters is engaged.

Just like Mr. Kolobkov, former Sports Minister Vitali Mutko, at the heart of the doping scandal and banned for life from the Olympic Games, who in recent years was Deputy Prime Minister in the government of Dmitry Medvedev, also left the cabinet of ministers.

The appointment of Mr. Matytsine, 55, president of the International University Sports Federation and author of scientific books on sport, was welcomed.

"He has a modern outlook on the problems. I am optimistic about the future," said Ganous to the public news agency RIA Novosti, promising "understanding and support" for the new minister.

Oleg Matytsin has "nothing to do with the sad events related to doping, and that's very good," said the president of the Russian Paralympic Committee, Vladimir Lukin, quoted by the agency.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) decided on December 9 to ban Russia from participating in major international events for four years, including the 2020 and 2022 Olympic Games and the 2022 Soccer World Cup.

The sanctions provide that only handpicked Russian athletes will be able to participate in the competitions, but under a neutral flag and without the national anthem being played.

If the sanctions are so heavy, it is because the AMA considered that Russia had "manipulated" the data of the anti-doping laboratory of Moscow having been transmitted to it in 2019.

Putin called sanctions against his country "unjust".

© 2020 AFP