Moscow (dpa) - The fine of 6.31 million US dollars imposed by the World Athletics Federation against Russia for doping manipulation has been paid according to information from Moscow.
The Russian athletics federation RusAF announced that the amount had been transferred. The Ministry of Sports in Moscow had previously announced that it would support the association, which it claims was in financial distress. If the fine had not been paid, Russia would have threatened to be expelled from the World Athletics Federation.
Sports minister Oleg Matyzin had last promised in a letter to World Athletics that the fine would be paid by August 15. Originally, the penalty should be paid by July 1st. However, the Russian association had complained that it no longer had this amount of money because of the Corona crisis. As a result, there was a final ultimatum at the end of July to prevent Russia from being excluded.
"Russia's Ministry of Sports continues to support the implementation of the plan for a culture of zero tolerance to doping and for the restoration of the membership of the RusAF in World Athletics," the agency said in Moscow. Russia has to pay a total of ten million dollars. The sanctions against Russia - the fine and the suspension of the examination of Russian athletes for an individual right to start - were decided in March.
In November 2015, RusAF was suspended for the first time because of widespread doping in Russian athletics. Since then, the suspension has been extended more than a dozen times. After Russia failed to pay the first installment of the 10 million fine on time, there was speculation about immediate exclusion. The high fine was imposed in the course of the affair about the high jump indoor world champion Danil Lysenko. RusAF officials had forged documents to cover up Lysenko missed drug tests.
The World Anti-Doping Agency had banned Russia from the summer and winter games for four years for manipulating doping data. At the same time, she had left the door open to participation for allegedly unaffected athletes in the country under a neutral flag.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 200812-99-143916 / 2
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