Russia banned from 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang

As expected and despite a last appeal of Russian athletes in last days, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced today to suspend the membership of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and consequently to exclude Russia from the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. The decision following the publishing of so-called "Richard McLaren report", an investigation about the existence of a state doping system. Besides the decision about the athletes, IOC also ruled to ban Russia's deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko and former Sports Minister Yuri Nagornykh, resigned in 2016 after the eruption of doping scandal, from visiting the Olympics.

Last month the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) refused to reinstate the rights of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), because the Russian Agency did not grant WADA access to doping samples, even though Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov promised to give doping samples to WADA at the meeting after the investigation. The WADA decision had been interpreted as a signal of a negative decision by the IOC.

The fate of Russia national hockey team is still unclear: following the decision of IOC, Russian athletes can compete at 2018 Winter Olympics under a neutral flag but last week
Vice-President of the ROC and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Kontinental Hockey League Gennady Timchenko said to newspaper Pravda.ru that "The hockey team can not perform in Pyeongchang under a neutral flag, and simply, it would be strange.Vladimir Putin clearly said how we feel about the possible decision to admit Russia to the Olympics under some sort of a flag" referring to a statement by President Putin who had defined an "humiliation for the country" the partecipation under a neutral flag, just like non-admission to the Games

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