Russia to be reinstated after criteria met in full: IPC chief

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is ready to reinstate Russias suspended membership as soon as possible if the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) implements in full the required criteria set for this purpose, IPC President Philip Craven has said.

"The aim of the reinstatement criteria and the IPC task force is to assist the RPC as much as we can in bringing about the significant practical and cultural changes that are required in order for it to fulfil its IPC membership obligations in full," he said.

"Although there is no timeline for the RPC to implement the changes required, we want to work closely with them in order to bring about the necessary changes sooner, rather than later," the statement quoted Sir Philip Craven as saying on Thursday, reports Tass.

"The RPC is an important part of the Paralympic Movement and its athletes want to be competing against the world's best athletes on the international stage," he said.

"With the RPC's full cooperation and transparency, we will immediately lift its suspension once we are confident that all reinstatement criteria and verification criteria have been, and will continue to be, met in full," the IPC president added.

The IPC announced on August 7 its decision to bar the whole Russian Paralympic team from taking part in the 2016 Summer Paralympics. The ruling came on the heels of a report delivered in July by the WADA Independent Commission, chaired by Canadian sports law professor Richard McLaren.

The McLaren-led commission claimed in particular that a total of 35 doping samples were concealed by Russian Paralympic sports between 2012 and 2015.

Besides collectively punishing the Russian national team by banning it from the Rio Games, the IPC also decided to suspend the RPC's membership.

The IPC later put forward a list of criteria needed for Russia to implement in order to regain its membership in the global organization and set up a special Taskforce group to monitor the implementation of the requirements in question.

According to the Part Two of the McLaren report, delivered in London on December 9, Russia's six winners of 21 Paralympic medals were found to have had their urine samples tampered with at the 2014 Sochi Paralympics. However, no names were provided.

--IANS

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