breaking news in r.t. russia is banned from the twenty eighteen winter games but international olympic committee chiefs have allowed individual athletes to compete under a neutral flag. dismay among team russia as athletes watched the announcement being delivered at the i.o.c. had courted in switzerland. and i welcome you watching our international with me andrew farmer and it era to the now breaking news this hour russia has been banned from twenty to twenty eighteen winter games however individual athletes have been allowed to compete under a neutral flag bell persisted pate under the name

a limb picked athlete from russia with the country's anthem and symbols banned from the games these in why did elsley so will participate be it in individual or team competitions under the name olympic else lead from russia with the all. they will compete with a uniform bearing. and under the olympic fluke. the olympic swim will be played only. for the russian figure skating coach tatiana task has reacted to the decision saying it is the worst possible. stukas they say there are no words you know i don't want to cry i want to scream the fact they're asked leitz have been allowed to compete as neutrals but have to call themselves olympic athletes from russia i think this is the worst outcome.

joins us live now is on a situation. he's been reporting for r.t. from last sun for us god you've been hard at work today now the russian flag and out of the band from the games can you take us through what's being said. well look it's been a very difficult day here obviously with so many eyes from around russia watching the announcement that would come from this room here in la sound where the international olympic committee executive board made a final decision on the future of russia when it comes to these next winter olympic games coming up in just two months from now now obviously it was a huge disappointment for all of those sports fans and athletes who have been

preparing for so long to be able to compete in these olympics under their own flag and you're their anthem when they when certainly these are very important things for any athlete of course not just russian and of course it's been a huge blow to those who have been looking forward to that taking place now as you've said obviously the latest is that russia has been banned so we'll we will not be seeing team russia perform at these olympics and this is actually the first time one a country using it so it has been banned for doping reasons so this is certainly something that's seen as a very major step that's being considered as an anti russian one by the athletes who have been watching closely what the decision would bring now this is not the only sanction that was imposed. here effective immediately by the i.o.c. they've also said that russia has to pay a very hefty fine of fifteen million u.s. dollars for these inquiries that were carried out on the alleged doping scandal that russia now has to pay for also we do know that it's been announced that

russian officials from the sports ministry will not be credentialed for these upcoming games also the minister of sports at the time of the saatchi olympics in two thousand and fourteen as well as his deputy will be excluded from any participation in all future olympic games the president of the russian olympic committee is going to be suspended as an i.o.c. member and all of these factors taken into account it has also been said that the i.o.c. may partially or fully lift the suspension of the russian olympic committee from the commencement of the closing ceremony of these upcoming games provided these decisions decisions are fully respected and implemented by russia now of course we have to be clear that throughout this whole time russia has denied these allegations being made against it and has been quite vocal about this seeing this decision as something that would be inadmissible in the days leading up to this announcement but let's hear what the president of the russian olympic committee had

to say. but russian fleets will participate in the olympics under a neutral flag and with the national anthem but this restriction is valid only until the last day of the games but we still believe that all restrictions on russia will be cancelled on the final day so that our athletes can march under a russian flag together with other teams from the rest of the world. this decision will be discussed berger's final decision will take place later. well given that these winter olympic games are just two months from now we'll see how the events will unravel moving forward but it's safe to see that this announcement here has been a huge blow for athletes and sports fans in russia but we'll see what happens next with still two months to go. ok this year children are reporting there from us and thanks very much for keeping us up to date. russian figure skater and twenty sixteen and twenty seven world champion two you can give him

a diverse thinks it won't be fair if russia is excluded from competition because the main point of my speech was that my rivals during the olympic games will have a chance to compete two times as individuals and in a team but if russia isn't allowed to take part in a team competition every sportsman will have just one chance to win the medal i think that is not fair. before today's decision twenty five russian athletes had already been banned from participating in the games by the commission which examine their cases many of them have been stripped of their medals toppling russia and the top of the g twenty fourteen medal table the move shattered the athletes' dreams and ambitions. the story is a little more as we were almost nose markel things probably was to appear a beach trainer she only now believes close your record is going to be. almost

a. dozen years niosh still your. list of do it just reasonably just really should sit on the. board from us and pressed me and i want to shoot of that is to get used to shoot anybody just me. or go to goodness the boy in there which to be charged the guy is all right but almost a thing even though i've been doing it you want your absolute joining more than your to be stored so you. can be needed to push a sting out of the lump in your leadership in europe where they see a good deal with the option of options towards. it all which in. the morning is not the. thing if you did that just. the three of them did you. watching if you. know most of the russian athletes who were handed

life bans to dispute the evidence that was presented against them and they also insist they are innocent and accuse officials are violating their presumption of innocence partridge looks now at how russia has been treated as guilty from the very start. four years ago there was skepticism that russia's first winter olympics would go without a hitch due mungo's 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 came out of the tower problem with the door of the house skaters 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 impressed and everything rush is on so far so much to care about. so far well organized people are really friendly here and having

a good time like you are accommodation or for 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 plots 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 what damage from the rio gave which left the clean athletes wondering why. we know about how the russians completing it so they got the right policy but sure they are a clean nation never mind cleaned out they ought to be a clean nation. the i.o.c. and i p.c.

have now definitively backed up mclaren supporting the claims of former lab boss cricketing don't think of who's 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 lodging called 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 result of a proper legal process it's a question of faith to believe broaching course or not it looks more like a religious inquisition was less than full bottles had 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 presumed guilty. after the world anti-doping agency laid out a road map for russian twenty sixteen the country acted swiftly with a number of strong measures it reform the structure of russia's own anti drugs agency allowed international experts to take control of its tests and also made doping a criminal offense punishable with a jail sentence

a law only currently imposed by a handful of european countries to start a med eighteen out of twenty criteria saying it couldn't meet the final two as it denies any government run doping program ever existed but last month water still found the russian agency non-compliant the head of water denied the decision was political but did say sport cannot exist without politics it's a sort of. impossible dream because it fits. in sport it's structured little. boy. well such comments maybe it all does with perhaps the most important document in sport the olympic charter because it does clearly state that it can be no political or commercial abuse of sport and athletes thomas barker the president of the international olympic committee gave his assurances the decision wasn't politically motivated.

the eye you see is politically absolutely neutral we would not allow her to be influenced by any kind of political considerations in. such a sporting matters just listening to the press conference and fielded exactly that question and they said this isn't a political decision but of course the world knows that it's exactly that this has been a controversy that has been clouded in political judgement and it's impossible to separate this particular decision from what's going on in the rest of the world regarding fake news and the allegedly intervention of russia into britain's brags vote and even the american presidential election so there is a lot of this kind of stuff swirling around the world at the moment a lot of it is beyond belief frankly about people are accepting some of it so i

don't think you can disentangle the two things before they say decision youngsters from hockey clubs across russia have showed their support for the nations after it by organizing a flash mob online chanting we want to go to the olympics. i i i. i. well i was the basis for today's decision thomas but did cite damning allegations of the russian side she twenty fourteen anti doping a poetry. the revolt of. one president at the take home the integrity of the olympic games and sports. the revolt includes in particular with

the money pollution of the n.t. the open letter tory. game says sochi two thousand and fourteen. ok let's get to the former u.s. diplomat jim with us good evening jamie i'm not sure how much using of this in the united states waking up to this news but. what do you make of it because the i.o.c. has said from the start it ain't to be objective and impartial g. think it was no i don't think so i think this is clearly a political lose remember this is a campaign that's been building for sale for years really since two thousand and fourteen with the airing us of these allegations. on german t.v. that all american t.v. remember the banning in rio of the russian track and field team and then even many of the paralympic team from russia were picking on handycam people down i think the fact that we are talking about banning the russian team the russian flag the russian anthem is shows that this is really directed against russia per se it's not

a question of clean athletes and athletes that are there. which we know is a widespread practice there was a two thousand legged water report that said between twenty nine and forty five percent of athletes worldwide were engaged in doping this is a problem in many other countries but russia is being singled out for the special treatment particularly against its national symbols and i think that is indeed quite political what sort of action would you like to see him because i take what you say the abbotts sports fans today will listen to the evidence and say you know in sochi something obviously if he was going on the air in twenty five athletes have been given lifetime bans i mean people do want to see action die because something did go wrong. sure i think that's right but the question is is it really credible to think that this is specifically a problem with russia and only with russia and i don't think that's the case i as i say i think there are a lot of athletes or a lot of teams there have been reports showing that teams from belgium france

turkey have a higher percentage of its athletes with with real questions about about the. this is a may be involved well i don't see there's any talk about banning those countries rather than just any athletes themselves that are out of line and we have to remember how much of the mclaren report is based on the information from just a handful of individuals and they did not accept information from the russian side or any rebuttal from the russian side or an idea to them to balance their report. in those water reports g.m. didn't we a lot state sponsored thing russia is guilty of state sponsored diapering something that the i.o.c. emphatically deny today i think we can look at the statement that they said but effectively they were saying it was no evidence that there was knowledge of all this going on at a high level of the state what they did today was a brain the sports ministry and the russian input committee but they didn't make

this big show that this was state sponsored dieting as we've been led to believe for the last three years. that's you know that's all well and good but the punishment certainly is st applied it's applied to a country it's applied to a flag and an anthem to an entire nation and a look i think we have to look at this is a form of asymmetrical warfare we do have to put it in the context of all the stuff about election hacking and all the other accusations that are being made against russia and the other demonization that has been taking place for several years now in the western media so i don't i don't think we can we can separate that from from this sort of death penalty approach which the i.o.c. is now now handing out and in terms of future drug scandal to take he think other countries will. suffer the same sort of scrutiny as i suffer but as you mentioned you touched upon the pain a lot of dieting scandals around the world but certainly as a sports fan i'm grateful that they take the time to work out exactly what's going

on but i look around and i say what i care what about other countries that have to make what is conditions and be non-compliant. i think that's where the distinction comes in is it was not just a question of applying standards and having very effective and active testing it's a question of trying to jump to a conclusion to say russia is a country is guilty whereas if french athletes are chinese athletes or german athletes or american athletes are found to be violating the rules well that's not a reflection of those countries i think unfortunately this is the kind of mentality we've seen across the board in many areas and this is simply another application where the western powers and i have to say that this should suspicions are very strong that one way or the another i don't have the fingerprints i can point to somebody in the united states is really orchestrating this him is that they are here in the studio i'm going to jump in head now and look at the chief of the

i.c.'s commission he said that the thing is said that the fake is in the report fluctuate the investigation is still ongoing yet well i say first let's listen to what was said and then i'll pick up on the. each and you can. you can find all the figures in the report and in the onyx is over the report is the biggest flaw trait because the analyses the examinations the investigations are still ongoing and. so we had you know i just said so the investor is still there still got to probe they still got to investigate they have made this decision haven't made punitive measures have been put in place like we've been talking about for hours now you know and those russian i think those clean russian athletes those individuals you know they will be able to compete but they you know the whole thing about the olympics is to compete for your country isn't it why have you been able to go and hide jim do you think with these final as

i say and because i think this is not even so much about the athletes or about the the bad athletes it's about russia it's about the country that's what they're trying to appeal to allies that's what they want to put the mark of cain on on russia as a whole not on the olympic team or even the athletes themselves again another case in point why is it that athletes from other countries that are found who have been being are are suspended they have a period but they're literally handing out lifetime bans to russian athletes and i do think there's a double standard here and it is designed as a tool political warfare how do you think russia should respond jim because you know we've heard that kind of mixed reaction you know so some people are saying well yeah you know it was right to put some form of punishment if you like to use that word in but yet those clean athletes will be able to take pause which is their

dream as well maybe you know it's a stripped away book what do you think russia should do do you think they should allow that to happen or do you think they should boy boycott and say you know well when having this. you know i can understand both points of view on this i guess on balance i would say not to boycott but that would simply be a further punishment of russian athletes yes they will be under their flag they won't have their anthem but people will know when they when those medals are standing on the podium everybody will know that that's a russian up there that's the russian flag even if it's really the olympic flag is flying there and in a kind of a phony display it's sad that it comes to that but at your shows the kind of pressure and political warfare that has become standard nowadays jim just squashed in the middle of all of this is the i.o.c. i just it occurs to me now i think this is just a bit of a compromise because then i think sort of said i k russia is not state sponsored will say that much but please go along with the fact that we can have your flag at

the games all day you know we can say roughly from russia is so cold. it is a bit odd and i think the the figley are saying it's not state sponsored but then holding the whole country responsible is a bit of a dog as well. if it's so much a compromise as it is just a sort of a two faced or forked tongue message coming from the i.o.c. where they're trying to pretend abyss is more fair than it is. and in terms of sort of the media coverage we can expect from this i don't think. i don't think i'll be writing tomorrow it's not state sponsored put it that way. no and i did just require prior to this interview it just overwhelming overwhelming at least the english language media about how one or how wonderful this decision is and how much the will russian deserve this etc etc etc but how does that differ from any other coverage coverage we ever again about anything connected to russia the american

mainstream media yeah i mean go out we have had a lot with negative at the you know what i was surprised jim and i start reading the internet tonight and looking at the papers tomorrow you must know and that's what it that's why the russian bullhorn r t is under target as well i mean you get it's sort of across the board phenomenon and i think this is just a further manifestation of. jim always nice to toshi we're going to leave it that i was fully u.s. diplomat thank you. ok in the run up to the i say meeting last being intense pressure for a total ban on team russia and stepping officials and even the things from other nations have been demanding a full suspension of the country russia denies the existence of a government sanctioned doping scheme calling the unprecedented actions already taken by the i.o.c. politically motivated. well the yet the scandal was triggered back in twenty fifteen if you can remember back then by the mclaren report published by a canadian lawyer however the document meant to prove widespread and state backed

violations 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 rich 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 caseys dr richard mclaren's findings were issued into pogs they claim that over a thousand russian athletes were involved in

a state sponsored doping program let's meet the riposte 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 for 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 batali. the sports minister at the time of the alleged undercover doping scheme.

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 salt next 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 parcel which is swiss manufacturer guarantees can't be tampered with richard mclaren doesn't have an answer on how the russians did it he just says it can be done and that's enough seen it i've seen that done and i'll inspected it and it can be done and 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 that is not that there are some marks on the bottles because then i would be terribly afraid of giving samples. investigative journalist rick sterling to

explain to us why he believes the mclaren reports have little 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 and 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's 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. there's russian athletes who seem to life ban from the impacts in the past few weeks chad and that emotions with us saying alleged james had been chat. that's what's been the. possible from somebody a lot of the. warm up of the new more sophisticated you get this thing to eat a small piece still. of. the school the thing. i am. the state of the state of shit you know. and that's the way it's going to be skewed the question for bush is still. it's the files as opposed to the seats available it's like. the full stop.