Russia ban outside the law, morality & humanity: Putin

Russian president Vladimir Putin greets judoka Beslan Mudranov in Moscow yesterday. Pic/PTI

Moscow: President Vladimir Putin yesterday lashed out against the ban on Russian Paralympians from Rio as the country has vowed to keep fighting the suspension it faces over state-sponsored doping.

Russian president Vladimir Putin greets judoka Beslan Mudranov in Moscow yesterday. Pic/PTI

"The decision to suspend our Paralympians is outside the law, morality, humanity," Putin said in a ceremony at the Kremlin that honoured the Russian Olympic medallists returning from Rio.

Putin also pledged that the country would organise competitions for the banned Paralympians "to show all their skills."

At the competitions, "the reward for the champions and winners will be the same as it would have been at the end of the Paralympic Games," the Kremlin strongman said.

Ban appeal
Russia last week appealed a decision by the International Paralympic Committee to suspend the country over evidence of state-sponsored doping.

After the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport announced it had rejected Russia's appeal on Tuesday, Putin, who at the Kremlin handed gold medal winners state awards, congratulated the Russian Olympic team on its "worthy performance" in Rio but deplored that some athletes, including nearly all of its track and field team, were sidelined from the Games.

"Unfortunately we witnessed how the humanist foundation of sport and Olympism was brazenly violated by politics," Putin said, adding that "greed and maybe cowardice" had taken precedence over Olympic principles.

Russia narrowly escaped a blanket ban last month for the Rio Games.