The heads of various Russian sports federations took part in an educational seminar organized by the Independent Public Anti-Doping Commission (PLA) this week.
Russian news site R-Sport reports that the seminar was organized by the PLA and included experts from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The meeting took place in Moscow on Tuesday, October 25.
R-Sport quotes Russian Swimming Federation President Vladimir Salnikov as saying the seminar was “encouraging” because it didn’t point fingers specifically at Russia:
“I really liked that the problem of doping at the seminar was marked not as a Russian problem, but as a world problem was a more constructive approach, and that is encouraging,” Salnikov said in the R-Sport report.
Russia has been under fire for doping concerns for much of 2016. Its entire Paralympic team was banned from the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games, and a number of Russian Olympic athletes were banned from Rio as well, including the nation’s entire athletics program. Those Olympic and Paralympic exclusions were the result of a series of reports alleging that Russian athletes were benefiting from a massive, organized, state-sponsored doping program.
