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Athletics trio embroiled in Russian doping scandal loses appeal

Disgraced ex-IAAF president Lamine Diack's son Papa Massata Diack, former Russian athletics chief Valentin Balakhnichev and coach Alexei Melnikov lost their appeals on Monday against life bans imposed over corruption.

Athletics trio embroiled in Russian doping scandal loses appeal
Papa Massata Diack. Photo: Seyllou/AFP
The Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne said the evidence presented against the trio showed that the charges were “established beyond reasonable doubt and that the sanctions imposed should be upheld.”
   
In January of last year, the ethics commission of governing body the IAAF barred the group from any involvement in athletics, alleging that they took bribes to cover up doping by Russian athletes.
   
Balakhnichev had been the head of the All-Russia Athletic Federation (ARAF), who supervised Melnikov, a former chief ARAF coach for long-distance walkers and runners.
   
The former ARAF boss was furious with the decision, although admitted he hadn't expected the appeal to be successful.
   
“I didn't expect any other decision. Everything that is currently taking place in the sports legal system is complete rubbish,” Balaknichev told Russian press agency R-Sport.
   
“It's an unfair, absolutely unlawful decision.”
   
Papa Massata Diack, a former marketing consultant to the IAAF, is one of 15 sons of the fallen former president.
   
The IAAF sanction was imposed just before the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) released a bombshell report detailing a massive doping programme in Russian track and field.
   
WADA claimed the cheating had state support in Moscow and that IAAF leaders must have known about it, given the wide scope of the doping.
   
The scandal led to dozens of Russian athletes being barred from the Rio 2016 Games.
   
Moscow has fiercely denied the existence of a state-sponsored doping programme, but has taken steps to get Russian athletes back into international action, including by setting up an independent anti-doping lab.
   
Separately, Papa Massata and Lamine Diack also face charges in France over millions of dollars paid to cover up doping failures by Russian athletes.

RUSSIA

Russia announces no New Year’s greetings for France, US, Germany

US President Joe Biden, France's Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will not be receiving New Year's greetings from Russian leader Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Friday.

Russia announces no New Year's greetings for France, US, Germany

As the world gears up to ring in the New Year this weekend, Putin sent congratulatory messages to the leaders of Kremlin-friendly countries including Turkey, Syria, Venezuela and China.

But Putin will not wish a happy New Year to the leaders of the United States, France and Germany, countries that have piled unprecedented sanctions on Moscow over Putin’s assault on Ukraine.

“We currently have no contact with them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“And the president will not congratulate them given the unfriendly actions that they are taking on a continuous basis,” he added.

Putin shocked the world by sending troops to pro-Western Ukraine on February 24.

While Kyiv’s Western allies refused to send troops to Ukraine, they have been supplying the ex-Soviet country with weapons in a show of support that has seen Moscow suffer humiliating setbacks on the battlefield.

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