President Vladimir Putin on Thursday insisted Russia's athletes should be allowed to compete under the Russian flag, despite a four-year ban handed down by the World Anti-Doping Agency from major sporting events over systematic violations.
"If WADA does not have any issues with our national Olympic committee our team must compete under its flag," Putin said during an annual end-of-year news conference, insisting that most of Russia's athletes were clean.
"Any punishment should be individual," he added.
"If a majority of our athletes are clean how is it possible to slap sanctions against them for someone else's actions?"