PARIS — Lamine Diack, a former president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, has been placed under criminal investigation on suspicion of taking more than $1 million in bribes from Russia to cover up positive doping tests.
French prosecutors said Wednesday that Diack and other I.A.A.F. officials were suspected of taking money in 2011 to allow at least six Russian athletes to continue competing, some of them at the 2012 London Olympics, when they should have been barred for doping.
“They decided not to act, and now we understand why,” said Jean-Yves Lourgouilloux, a French prosecutor.