Putin vows to organise special competitions after Paralympics ban

Putin vows to organise special competitions after Paralympics ban

PanARMENIAN.Net - President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, August 25 lashed out against the ban on Russian Paralympians from Rio as the country has vowed to keep fighting the suspension it faces over state-sponsored doping, AFP reports.

"The decision to suspend our Paralympians is outside the law, morality, humanity," Putin said in a ceremony at the Kremlin that honoured the Russian Olympic medalists returning from Rio.

Putin also pledged that the country would organise competitions for the banned Paralympians "to show all their skills."

At the competitions, "the reward for the champions and winners will be the same as it would have been at the end of the Paralympic Games," the Kremlin strongman said.

Russia last week appealed a decision by the International Paralympic Committee to suspend the country over evidence of state-sponsored doping.

After the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport announced it had rejected Russia's appeal on Tuesday, Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko condemned what he called a "political" decision, AFP says.

The president of the Russian Paralympic Committee, Vladimir Lukin, on Wednesday pledged to press on with legal action in a bid to overturn the decision.

Mutko said that Russia would now contest the decision with the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland in the hope of seeing Russian Paralympians compete in Rio.

Putin, who at the Kremlin handed gold medal winners state awards, congratulated the Russian Olympic team on its "worthy performance" in Rio but deplored that some athletes, including nearly all of its track and field team, were sidelined from the Games.

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