MOSCOW (AP) — Russia’s deputy prime minister, responding to calls for the nation’s sports teams to be excluded from all international competitions because of doping, said Wednesday that the country is “among the cleanest in the world.”
Following a summit this week, leaders from 19 national anti-doping organizations also called for Russia to be stripped of the right to host major sports events, a measure which would affect next year’s World Cup.
Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko, who oversees sports policy in the country, accused the group of meddling in politics.
“The people who should be analyzing urine have started pressuring the people who take political decisions,” Mutko said in comments to Russian news agency R-Sport.