“Any punishment should be individual: if someone is specifically convicted of something, then this is completely natural and fair, but if the vast majority of athletes are clean, how can anyone sanction them for their actions?” - Putin said at a press conference.
As an example, he cited figure skating, in which young athletes perform, and wondered what, being almost children, they have to do with doping.
“Yes, no, but they jump, make four turns, and nobody does so far, almost no one in women's figure skating. Here they can be cleaned and removed from the ice in figure skating in this way. Can? It is possible, but why? Is it going to benefit in the development of world sports? I think not, ”the head of state added.
On December 9, the WADA executive committee suspended Russia from international competitions for four years, and also forbade it from holding international tournaments. In addition, the participation of Russian athletes in competitions only in neutral status was recommended.
This is due to the identification of intentional changes in the data of the Moscow laboratory, the transfer of which in its original form was one of the key points for restoring RUSADA compliance status with the World Anti-Doping Code.
It was previously reported that Putin called the WADA decision on Russia unfair.