our breaking news story this hour russia is banned from the two thousand eight hundred winter games but the international olympic committee will allow individual athletes to compete under a neutral flag. there is dismay among team russia as athletes watched the announcement being delivered at the i.o.c. headquarters in switzerland. and broadcast live direct from the studios a mask of this is art international i'm sean thomas let's get right to our top story this hour russia has been banned from the two thousand and eighteen winter olympic games however individual athletes will be allowed to compete hundred neutral flag they will participate under the name olympic athlete from russia with

the country's anthem and symbols banned from the games this means the abbreviation are will be written on russian athletes uniforms and an olympic flag will be next to their name also when a medal is awarded to them the olympic anthem will be played rather than russia and the i.o.c. has explained its decision by saying that some russian athletes doping test samples were manipulated to during the sochi games in two thousand and fourteen these are right to their sleep so will participate be to an individual or team competitions under the name olympic else lead from russia. they will compete with a uniform bearing. and under the olympic flame. the olympic and swim will be played he said really. a russian figure skating coach touched you know. broke down in tears when she learned of the decision. slovenia which still

because they see there are no words you know i don't want to cry i want to scream it's sad that we won't be at the games as a team but the russian flags will be flying it's devastating that there will be no tears of joy as you hear your national anthem but nobody is prohibited from singing the anthem i think that if there are victories and if there are athletes who want to participate and when i think we'll hear them singing. that was. our correspondent an associate churkin a is now in a loss and she filled us in on the decisions taken concerning the russian olympic team. 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 los down 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 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 said obviously the latest is that russia has been we will not be seeing team russia perform at these olympics and this is actually the first time one using it. 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 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 athletes will participate in the olympics under a neutral flag and without the national anthem but this restriction is valid only until the last day of the games 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 still this decision will be discussed further and the final decision will take place later with. the main point of my speech was that my rivals during the olympic games would have a chance to compete two times as a d.v.d. and in a team but it isn't allowed to take part in team competition every sportsman will have just one chance to win the medal i think that is not clear 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 say that this announcement here knows and 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. well 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 sochi two thousand and fourteen medal table the move shattered the athlete's dreams and ambitions. of the sort of musical noise with the most news markel the things presently with you at the end of the changer that you now believe. is going to be a bit slow i mean almost a. good thing is nice but you're the. first

of do it just reasonably just really should sit on the. board from us. and i want to shoot of that is to teach east should anybody just. go with. the boy in there which sickly chariots that guy has no rights but almost a thing even though i haven't seen it you warn your absolute joining more than you are to be stored so. to be interviewed at the bushies to news of the opinion leadership in europe what they see with the election which starts. at the witching . border is not a. thing if you did that just. to say of. what you if you're. the i.o.c. reports of those say it is unclear who might be behind possible doping efforts they stated there is no evidence that the russian government is responsible.

nevertheless the independent and impartial evidence do not allow the i.o.c. d.c. to establish with certitude either who initiated or who headed this scheme on many occasions reference was made on the involvement at the minister of sports level but no indication independent or impartial evidence appeared to cooperate any involvement or knowledge at a higher level of the state earlier we spoke to alan moore a russia based sports specialist and columnist he thinks demonizing russia is a profitable strategy for the i.o.c. the sport on a simple simply is there is no fair play in sport i mean at this level the simple truth is that in order to compete at the highest level you have to do something to stay there and when you have a very well paying job at the level of mr packer and mr reedy and travis tiger and so on they need to do to kind of stay on top i just don't live in

a new russia is very useful to keep this it's very very unfair in russia under doing this there is of course a political drive behind us the one of the thing i would question that i have my mind is ok so russia's bond and so long as it was completely banned what next who else would we go after like my my money would be on nobody because they want to keep beating or sick a piece a new drum say russia's bad russia's bad because if russia is the only bad one in order at least are clean and then as my athletes from are and are clean you're at this new character it was so we can sleep well at night thinking oh we're ok the russians are the bad guys in the case you know a lot of the cases that there's a lot of bad guys everywhere. you know it's just it won't change and now with this it will change even for the. now just to remind you the international olympic committee says russian athletes can only compete under a neutral flag they will participate under the title olympic athlete from russia with the country's flag and symbols banned from the games next tuesday russian sports officials are expected to hold

a meeting on how to react to that decision but earlier president putin said that the neutrals option would be humiliating for the country. there are two options either forcing russia to compete under a neutral flag or not letting it go to the olympics a tool either is a humiliation for the country. or joined me earlier in the studio for an in-depth discussion of the i.o.c. . it is going to be a very tough decision that will depend of course on the individual athletes but you may like it or not it will also be influenced by the russian olympic committee which provided the facilities which was and charge of the training anyway if russia chooses to boycott the twenty eight ing winter games that will be a direct result of the ruling that was announced by the c. executive board on tuesday but the i.o.c. probes as you know have already resulted in the lifetime bans of more than two

dozen russian winter olympic athletes and we understand that more could be coming up and questions have been raised here in russia along the lines of why do athletes from other countries when they are tested positive they get bad for a few years and then they are allowed to compete again whereas when it comes to the russian a limb paeans they are supposed to be kept away from winter olympics for good so you bring up these lifetime bans has the i.o.c. given any reason for these specific lifespans while the russians are being disqualified because of these scratches on the doping test bottles and also the excessive amounts of salt in the clean doping test samples which according to the i.o.c. a human body simply cannot produce these are the two key elements of the evidence but are they enough to blame the individuals for cheating while they may have been

unaware of this kind of tampering is this enough to impose lifetime bans and strip the clean wash and olympians of their right to carry russian flags during the winter olympics the ads for most people here in this country in russia would be no on like the reaction from some of the european alone pick officials. i'm pleased that the i.o.c. has taken this decision it is an important step in protects and then sport and gives comfort though i slits they're competing on a level playing field. it's a good day for international sport a good day for german sport all right so have we been shown any visual proof of the i.o.c. conclusions about the scratches and a ways to open sample bottles that is the question and also one washington journalists asked to see executive board press conference and the answer from mr

smith was you will be able to read about it in the forensic reports. figures fluctuate because the analysis examinations and the investigations are still ongoing. as far as the details and the forensic reports and examinations i certainly do not wish to go into details here and now i do not wish to divulge too many of these details however the fact remains that we can is certain that there has been there were many people a chanst in tampering this brings us to concerns here in russia over the transparency and also allowing the russian side access to these experiments and it has been said many times that the athletes in the first place but also the officials and the fans that are sympathetic they are also going through a lot of stress these people are eager to see some visual materials perhaps the investigators could have organized a press conference where they could show something and that i guess sums up the

concerns here in russia you were in south korea recently what do the people there make of the russian doping scandal and were they expecting to see. russia i went to seoul which is in the capital of the winter olympics twenty eight but it is the capital of south korea and many people from there will go to chang and i heard that they're against doping and they want the rules to be enforced but fairly and people told me that they will miss teen russia especially when there are sports like ice hockey or figure skating where competition especially during the olympics simply ok . not be imagined without team russia so let's take a look at how i spoke to locals in the streets of seoul south korea first bid to become the whole of winter olympics almost sixteen years ago in two thousand and eight young chang lost to russia's saw cheap but south koreans hung in there and

eventually did manage to make their dream come true. but at the had over. who would have thought that russia went to a sports powerhouse could end up missing out on the games in four years. what. have you heard about the russian doping scandal no i haven't heard. i don't know about this already yeah yeah i've never heard. anything but. i heard the news that this is. her face i don't know that it's true needs to be. what do you think the winter olympics would be like without russia.

to bring a little bit or i was going to turn. people . just like the. national. game. you know and it's not really a game when the biggest player is not there and we don't give him the rights to. be in. this event the people down the winter olympics but you know russia. the whole country that's so you really feel stuck. in the south korean capital which is looking forward to the country's first ever winter olympics that will happen without team russia. back to our continuing coverage of the international olympic committee's decision to ban russia's team and many individual russian athletes from taking part in the two thousand and eighteen winter games in south korea many athletes were handed a lifetime bans but most to dispute the evidence that was presented against them

insist they have done nothing wrong and accuse officials of violating their presumption of innocence or look 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 you concerned 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 gave us went so well even critics had to admit they were it we think been amazing it's running like clockwork and everything's just going really really well as i'm being really impressed and everything that she's done so far so much to care about. so far well organized and the people are really friendly here having a good time to our accommodation or for almost four years later and russians who

triumphed in sochi and now being stripped of their medals and given life a little 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 from the rio gave which left the clean athletes wondering why. about how the russians completing it so they adopted 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 rajan 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 court or not it looks more like a religious inquisition. 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 on for good 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. well in the run up to the i.o.c. meeting there has been intense pressure for a total ban on team russia anti-doping officials and even athletes 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. a politically motivated now the doping scandal was triggered back in two thousand and fifteen by the mclaren a report published by

a canadian lawyer however the document meant to prove widespread and state backs doping violations is still being questioned over its supporting evidence. damning mclaren reports on alleged state sponsored doping in russia has led to many athletes being stripped of their medals and others prevented from taking part in major events including the elim pics 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 in two 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'd 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 reports 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 salim the sports minister at the time of the alleged undercover doping scheme. with. the central allegation of mclaren

is that positive year in samples was systematically swapped for clean ones on top of that it describes how salts. next cafe granules 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 manufacturing 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 i've seen it i've seen it done and i'll be inspected and it can be done it can be reinserted we don't know how the russians did 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 the we will be able to see some evidence for 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. investigative journalist to read sterling explained 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 rajan come 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 up 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 of that there's a 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. after the world

anti-doping agency laid out a roadmap for russia in two thousand and sixteen the country acted swiftly with a number of strong measures and reform to the structure of russia's own anti-drug agency and allowed international experts to take control of its tasks and also made doping a criminal offense punishable with a jail sentence in law only currently imposed by a handful of european countries. eighteen of twenty criteria saying it could not meet the final two as it denies any government run doping program ever existed but last month was still found the russian agency non-compliant the head of the water denied the decision and said that it was political but did say that sport cannot exist without politics it's just sort of. impossible dream isn't it because. it's realistic to look at it and sport is such an important

to people's lives. such comments may be at odds with perhaps the most important document in sports the olympic charter it clearly states that there can be no political or commercial abuse of sports and athletes thomas bach the president of the international olympic committee gave his assurances that the decision was not politically motivated. the i you see is a 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 they 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 judgment 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 bragg's it 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 or before the i.o.c. decision youngsters from hockey clubs across russia showed their support for the nation's athletes by organizing a sort of flash mob online chanting we want to go to the olympics. i. thank you.

well that doesn't for me you are watching r t international my colleagues will be here at the top of the hour with more news that you are looking at r t international stay with us. i'm part chilton this is boom bust broadcast around the world from washington d.c. coming up the organization of petroleum exporting countries has agreed to extend their one point eight million barrel per day production cut through the end of twenty eight teams have the cuts had any real impact on raising oil prices and what does the future hold for the u.s. and global oil commodities and how might that impact consumers how might it impact

you we'll drill into it with tyson the slocum plus we'll examine how sexual harassment allegations are affecting the entertainment industry then the u.s. securities and exchange commission's new cyber unit jumps into action its first target and initial coin offering by a canadian company we'll talk to alex mchale of veggies about the latest but first let's check out the new stories topping the headlines. jay powell is on track to be the next chair of the federal reserve after being approved by the senate banking committee vote today by twenty two to one with only one democrat democrat senator elizabeth warren opposing the nomination the full it senate is expected to occur firmly in the not too distant future mr powell who has received bipartisan support in the past he's sort of the federal reserve governor since two thousand and twelve mr powell also is set to replace such replace chairwoman janet yellen who's term expires in february and that's.