when the biggest. result given to you right. would be the obvious you haven't noticed world this is on the front of the winter olympics with no roster. that the whole country gets to your political stuff a million a train go in the south korean capital which is looking forward to the country's first ever winter olympics that will happen without team russia well let's just remind you then about that decision on team russia the international olympic committee this evening said that russian athletes can only compete under a neutral flag at the upcoming winter games they will participate under the name olympic athlete from russia with the country's flag and symbols banned from the games the russian olympic committee has been suspended with immediate effect. the olympic games came to the decision after hearing finding is more than a year long independent investigation into alleged state sponsored doping in russia the probe headed by the former swiss president samuel schmidt and evidence of the

systematic systemic manipulation of the anti doping rules and system well russian figure skating coach tatiana tarasova has reacted to the decision saying it is the worst possible. look as they say there are no words you know i don't want to cry i want to scream the fact they're astley's have been allowed to compete as neutrals but have to call themselves olympic athletes from russia i think this is the worst outcome. before today's decision twenty five russian athletes had already been banned from participating in the games by the commission which examined their cases many of them have been stripped of their medals toppling russia from the top of the saatchi

twenty fourteen medal table the move shattered to the athletes' dreams and ambitions. the story is a little more as we got almost no snorkel things probably was to appear a beach trainer she only now believes close the record is going to be a very slow and. almost a must that my mom could get in the studio. to push to do it just recently we just really should sit on the. board from us and pressed me and i want to shoot of that is to choose to shoot anybody just me. or go to goodness the boy in there which sickly chariot the guy was all right but the most the thing even though i've been to warn him up so you can join in more of your to be stored so you. to be nearer to the bushy stingers of the opinion leadership

in your work to see you get here with us you've watched heard. it all which in. the morning is not the. thing you did that just. the fear of what did you. watch and if you. were most of the athletes russian athletes who were handed life bans to dispute the evidence that was presented against them they insist they are innocent and accused officials of violating their presumption of innocence partridge looks now at how attitudes towards russian sports has changed in recent years. four years ago there was skepticism that russia's first winter olympics would go without a hitch due mongers predicted not enough flights not enough hotels and not enough snow concerns about socially squaller in sochi double toilets and missing door handles the water that came out of the tower problem with the door of the house

cables went so well even critics had to admit they were it three things going to mazing it's running like clockwork and everything's just going really really well as i'm being really present everything that she's done so far so much to care about . so far well organized people are really friendly here having a good time like you are accommodation or food it's almost four years later and russians who triumphed in sochi and now being stripped of their medals and given life a live picture why twenty sixty in the middle report explosively claimed russia used an elaborate system of state sponsored doping athletes officials and ministers were implicated like the plot of a cold war novel the attitude to russia a return to skepticism then retribution as its track and field team and entire paralympic team with damage from the rio gave which left the clean athletes wondering why. we care about how the russians completing it

so they adopt the right policy but sure they are a clean nation never mind cleaned out they are to be a clean nation. the i.o.c. and i p.c. have now definitively backed up mclaren supporting the claims of formal lab boss cricketing don't think of who is under criminal investigation in russia and saying that infamous sample swapping system has finally been replicated but questions remain the i.o.c. standard of proof is not beyond any reasonable doubt but rather the balance of probability the presumption of guilt is enough it was logic of who was the original and only source of so-called proof against russian fleets this evidence has been grossly overvalued we can see we are seeing the results of a proper legal process it's a question of faith to believe broaching course or not it looks more like

a religious inquisition. questionable bottles have no visible scratches they were presumed tampered with as the russians must have perfected their technique and left no marks and no argument basis for an on mass ban to clean condemned without any guilt no presumption of innocence for team russia what we see here is actually a violation of the olympic charter which is. which stands against political national racial discrimination so it appears that in the name of protecting clean athletes they are actually taking away the rights of russian clean athletes and in my opinion the mclaren accusations are unfounded and they are very politically biased. surely any athlete should be denied a medal and banned from competition if he or she cheats it undermines others' lifetime's work as does abound slapped on the innocent who are simply prison. i am

guilty. of bringing now radio talk show host and political commentator dave perkins into our discussion welcome to the program dave. and i suppose let let's look at what was said quickly during that press conference the icy press conference. what they talked about is that those who are responsible for taping for example needed to be sanctioned hence the decisions that they've made that the clean russian athletes should be integrated into these sanctions in other words not being able to wear the uniform the you know the theme. is this the fairest off option in your opinions for the up for the athletes who are clean that they were such harsh measures that are going to be taken that one of the most important events of their life. well four years is a lifetime for olympic athlete and i was thinking about the difference between summer and winter olympics and i realize that winter really big competitors are

usually your bets on average older and so they've been at it longer and their peak of athletic expectations are right in the heart of what's going on now but also they're old enough to know when somebody is lying to them and when they're breaking something they don't know where it is and that sort of thing so the presumption of a little shared guilt on the part of the leads has to be a little bit higher i think for the winter olympics than for summer when there are so many more children in gymnastics and that sort of thing and so i'm less implying to do favor the athletes because i'm more inclined to believe that on some level there was a collective knowledge of what was going on but at the same time if you're an athlete you can prove that you were clean and that you're not responsible or we're just playing in the that you're seeing if that's what it is then by all means you should be allowed to compete the fact that you're not carrying your nation's flag is a penalty but not the ultimate penalty as it would be if it were an even harsher measures

so yeah i tend to agree with this. david is andrew herr one thing that struck me during this press conference there was no mention of state sponsored ping the blame is laid at the door of the sports ministry on the russian olympic committee on that basis do you think it's too harsh to remove the russian flag in the russian anthem from this considering you know that is the nation it's not it's not a sport flag representing the sports ministry. well i can't help but believe that the reason that russia itself is not mentioned in this is political gentleness on the part of the i.o.c. because all the stories that i've read indicate that they're all more than clear that russia itself the nation is responsible for the institutional doping that they have found not just through experiments like the canadian professor mcgregor but the whistleblowers like the man grigori that you mentioned earlier the evidence seems to be one hundred percent it doesn't seem to leave any room for doubt that the nation itself was involved the government of russia so not to mention them in

the sanction is a political nicety yeah but there was that one sort of pick up on this if there was evidence wouldn't he just say that i mean he stress he says look we are in for objective it's a impartiality or not all our analysis is watertight so i mean wouldn't you a shame if he doesn't mention state sponsored he does not state sponsored. i would want to ask him that question specifically i would not assume it at all i would assume the opposite judging from. lots of material that i have read on the topic it's not one hundred percent certain to me i'm just a commentator but i think it's fairly certain to everyone involved in the testing of the discovery of the problem ok they were going to listen to what the evidence you know when the head of the commission was pressed on evidence and that investigation for allegedly of state funds and typing said that it all came down to the test let's just have a listen to what was said. soofi salts and.

some samples because of those high concentration he did so he didn't call so high it would. eliminate. the. and it was from that they have. some also you know just completely so i've never you. and others were close my. lips till opening. day what do you think of those comments. there is obviously much more evidence than that that is significant evidence that does not implicate the russian government but if you look at the language of the i.o.c. and the world anti-doping agency you see. without hesitation implication of the

russian government or not and so i think the punishment comes down here finding a way to punish the government but not the green weeds and then they make the gentle that's ever reconciliation did not mention the government in their public statement that's what i see going on here little bit of politics not points david russia has been told to pay fifteen million dollars for its part in the so-called value ping scandal is that a fair price. well i'm not familiar with the finances of the international olympic said sounds to me like like they're talking about recompense and international olympic games in general for some point until damage that might have been done reputation wise or and for the future i can't say that i know fifty million dollars is a fair price but it's a significant price and it's one that will get the attention even of our government in our day and they are doing so i think that's another indication of the certainty

that the government was involved. dave could you know considering the situation we've got is that russia still denying that there was state stumm sponsored doping and yet they've got this fifteen million dollars to pay what do you think they should do should they comply or should they just ignore i mean it's like this argument all of a silo now one side saying you know we don't agree with that and reports are written only on what they don't agree with so what's going to happen now. i've been kicking the can down the road the i.o.c. has been going to he on them and putting this off for future consideration and now the weight of several olympic games worth of this is on the shoulders of the authorities all at once and that does make it harder and russia does have options as a government that in other countries amateur sports association might not have for example the state order boycott or something of that nature this is international politics and and international relations it's not just sport there's a lot going on here and the russians have options they haven't even let on that

they're considering what i guarantee you they are. on that point i mean we're just hearing from the russian delegation early i'm not sure if you were able to listen to it in less than but they said you know there will be amazing of the russian olympic committee shortly on a decision will be made about the participation of russian after the some ain't just picking up on what you said there could be a boycott still potentially couldn't. there could be the good will continue to claim innocence and get serious about it and push back as hard as they can and it might have even in there but that would be a big step in denying athletes their chance at their one moment or laurie that would be a big step in denying clear victory to other athletes should be allowed to compete against the best there are in the winter games and that is clearly the russian team and so the implications of a boycott are terrible and fractures but they would also involve defending your innocence in the face of what looks like overwhelming accusations of guilt so there's no there's no rail on for the russians will go to try to continue to insist

that they are innocent or at least to make a show that. fascinating to tell you that is that you can write a talk show host and political commentator thank you. before the i.o.c. to say it and young says from hockey clubs across russia has shared with us support for the nation by organizing a flash mob online chanting we want you to go to them pics. thank. you. joining us live now is an affair who is in los for us. we've been following this now the russian flag banned from the games have you had any reaction from the russian officials yet. well you know here in the zone

of course it's been a very tense day anticipating what kind of announcement would come from the international olympic committee following a day of deliberations behind closed doors that were closed to the media here who were kept inside a press room for most of the day waiting to hear what would be announced the i.o.c. have in fact said that russia is being suspended from the games but not individual athletes now this is a decision that's certainly going to be and it's already being seen as quite a fruitful not just to athletes who are pretty looking forward to participating at these winter olympics just two months from now but also the millions of fans in russia who of course see it as a source of special pride to see their own athletes being able to compete and also here russian as well as wear the uniforms and this is not going to be happening now we do know of course that following this latest decision the i.o.c. has said that russian athletes individually sort of selected clean ones will be able to participate under the olympic athletes for russia they will be listening to

the olympic athletes as opposed to the russian one and certainly this is something that's not being applauded by anybody in russia to say the least but this is what the president of the i.o.c. had to say on this decision. here we decide. we want to you know what. this is not about exclusion. discretion. you see. well there have been some questions about why clean athletes are being able to attend the cup coming winter olympics why they couldn't still participate under the russian. however this remains unanswered really as to why this measure has been taken because this is more seen as a sort of collective punishment given of course that these athletes would will not

be able to participate the way they would otherwise and these are just really one of the sanctions that has been applied by the i.o.c. we can also say that of course they are imposing a hefty fine of on russia of fifteen million u.s. dollars for the inquiries that were taking place leading up to this announcement that russia is now going to have to foot the bill for also they have said that any officials from the russian ministry of sports is going to be not accredited to these upcoming games that the minister of sports at the time of the salty olympics of twenty fourteen as well as his deputy are going to be banned from any future participation in the olympic games and also the president of the russian olympic committee is going to be suspended as an i.o.c. member now it has to be said all of the above taken into account that they have also said that the i.o.c. made fact partially or fully lift the suspension of the r o c from the commencement of the closing ceremony of the olympic winter games provided these decisions are fully respected and implemented but of course we're expecting more reaction to come

from russia we have heard that this kind of announcement would lead to a possible boycotts but whether or not what kind of shape and form the reaction to come is going to be taking place remains to be seen although obviously russia doesn't have very much room for maneuvering now that there's only two months left ahead of these games ok thanks for giving us an update and i'm sure you'll keep us updated with any more reactions that come to come to light. in the run up to the i.o.c. meeting this evening there has been intense pressure for a total ban on same russia officials and even athletes from other nations have been demanding a full suspension of the country russia as we've been saying just annoy the existence of a government sanctioned scheme called. the unprecedented actions already taken by the i.o.c. politically motivated. the doping scandal was triggered back in twenty fifteen by the mclaren reforms published by

a canadian lawyer however the document meant to prove widespread and state bank doping violations are still being questioned over its supporting evidence. the damning mclaren reports on alleged state sponsored doping in russia has led to many athletes being stripped of their meadows and others prevented from taking part in major events including the olympics however a few things in the report just don't add up before we break them down it's worth noting that the international olympic committee itself was not satisfied with the evidence in a letter to richard mclaren the i.o.c. ostrom more conclusive proof the document was covered with the phrase how to demonstrate almost every athlete's name moreover it was admitted by wada but in many cases the evidence provided may not be sufficient to bring successful cases of dr richard mclaren's findings were issued into your pods they claim that over a thousand russian athletes were involved in

a state sponsored doping program let's meet the report's star witness. the former head of a moscow anti doping lab he's facing charges over destroying test samples. and the e-mails presented as proof of state involvement come from his own computer. russian sports officials deny the allegations but did richard mclaren consider to get their side of the story i made a decision that with fifty seven days to do my work i didn't have the time and they didn't seem to have the interest so i didn't do that that came after the first part of the report issued in july twenty sixth. the second came six months later so the investigative team did eventually meet with some russian officials but not but. the sports minister at the time of the alleged undercover doping scheme. with. the central allegation of mclaren's report is that positive year in samples were

systematically swapped for clean ones on top of that it describes how salts. annex cafe granya was added to clean samples to make the match dirty ones and trick the testers. that information came courtesy of. another question this raises how do you swap the samples of a high security which is swiss manufacturing guarantees can be tampered with richard mclaren doesn't have an answer on how the russians did it he just says he can be done and that's enough to have seen it i've seen it done and i have inspected it and it can be done it can be reinserted we don't know how the russians did it but we know they can be done but despite all the questions and doubts over mclaren's evidence russian athletes are being punished on an unprecedented scale i have that we will be able to see some evidence to what they are being punished and it is not that there are some marks on the bottles because then i would be terribly afraid of giving samples. what investigative journalist are extending to explain

to us why he believes the mclaren reports to happen it'll credibility. the mclaren report has been unduly given a lot of credence in my opinion it's almost laughable how the how the assertions in that report are considered to be very profound and very well justified when if you actually look at the if you read the report and look at his evidence there's very little there apart from the testimony of the chief culprit gregory roger before the first mclaren report mclaren actually refused to consider a written argument from the russian side he never went to russia never talked with russian authorities even though he was accusing them of. state sponsored doping and then in the second report he never made time again to talk with russian

authorities the way he explained it is that he couldn't find a time that was convenient for him and for. the appropriate russian authorities from the sports ministry so that's pretty poor i mean it's a. fundamental principle of due process to listen to both sides of the story one could speculate that this is part that there's strong political bias at play here it's it's evident that in western media there is much demonization of russia and the russian president. and one could speculate that this is politically motivated and goes back to the situation in the ukraine. and the situation in the middle east where russia has come to the support of the government in syria that the west was trying to overthrow but that would be that would be speculation but it be fairly reasonable i think. before today's decision twenty five russian athletes had

already been banned from participating in the games by the commission which examined the cases many of them have been stripped of their medals toppling russia from the top of the saatchi twenty fourteen medal table the move shot at the athletes dreams and ambitions. that's what's been the. most painful but i do it up the. board walk all the more efficient we need to do this to you too small to absorb. it forgot the good news look at the. bush league of the who defeated the i mean that's the yeah it's going to be a condition of the future but it's still. a stick but it was

a spur of the seed simple but it's my team and the course doesn't force conditions in the troika to do it. and it's just going to be. the last one just popped up to live since the input of cornerstone could be a political developments in the us near the fall must just if he's going to support the deal but isn't that is a reset that's going forth cuts can get on a small war because of the war is not just for us it's kind of that and it also calls for us the reading list of seven is a vocal cord was that a lead to a little. instead of a closer call either that initial will or choice in new hampshire you. after the world anti-doping agency laid out a road map for russia in twenty sixteen the country acted swiftly with a number of strong measures it did reform the structure of russia's own anti drugs agency and allowed international experts to take control of its tests is also made

doping a criminal offense punishable with a jail sentence a law only currently imposed by a handful of european countries decider met eighteen out of twenty criteria saying it couldn't meet the final two as it does deny any government run doping program ever existed but last month while still found the russian agency non-compliant the head of water denied this isn't was political but did say sport cannot exist without politics. it's the sort of. impossible dream isn't it because it fits realistic to. a sport which is structured it would have an old boy that such comments may be at odds with perhaps the most important document in sport the olympic charter it clearly states that there can be no political or commercial abuse of sport and athletes attorney in the valley lonely believes the entire story of alleged russian doping has political overtones. a political fight against

russia going on board wide not only for but for every us and this is only one percent of the whole picture in sports they are trying to put pressure on the war. pressure against i will cede and i sink holders made clear that it is a political a term of war down that is good but that's because. he's an institution that should kept clean athletes and what they're trying to do is did the opposite we all know. sports teams always used by politicians to. make it bad to make the concrete look bad that that is clear that he's known for for many centuries already

but but now it has become a new corner to where the attacks or i'll go you only against one come to the last you know it's only the top only about russia but the old the countries who are. for example know this but human rights door or the sayings and nobody talks about them respect say with the president of the euro pain and then pick cat committees who also said the world of sport has been affected by politics. you know we have the basic principle principle of autonomy of sport of course politics part of the social life and to be live in the circumstances where we have to take in the god political approaches. but. the thing that it is very bad you follett exclude build these walls. i do

not think that we need to use force or any where there is the atmosphere of called the waters that are due to my own knowledge due to a lot to be helpful to put disappeared and they would appreciate it. term mind you now of our breaking news story russia is banned from the twenty eight hundred winter games but international limper committee allows individual athletes to compete under a neutral flag dismay among team russia as athletes watch the announcement being delivered at the headquarters in thoughtful and. well russia has been a banned them from the twenty eighteen winter games although individual athletes have been allowed to compete under a neutral flag they will participate under the name olympic athlete from russia with the countries and from and symbols banned from the games these in righted elsley will participate beating individual or team comp.