MOSCOW — On the biggest sports day in Russia before it hosts the World Cup next summer, the country’s deputy prime minister, Vitaly Mutko, again vehemently denied any state-sponsored doping of Russian athletes and accused the Western news media of trying to influence a coming decision on a possible ban of the country from the 2018 Winter Olympics.
“I’m happy to go to any court, to any disciplinary committee, to anyone and I’ll be happy to talk about how there has never been and will never be any state programs related to doping in this country,” Mutko said Friday, only hours before the draw for the World Cup at the Kremlin.