Russia to pay IOC $15 mn: Deputy PM

The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) will pay a recently requested sum of $15 million to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) only based on a mutually agreed accord with the worlds governing Olympic body, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko said on Thursday.

The IOC Executive Board on Tuesday had said that the ROC was to reimburse the costs incurred by the IOC on the investigations of doping and to contribute to the establishment of the Independent Testing Authority (ITA) for the total sum of $15 million.

In July 2016, the IOC set up two separate commissions to probe doping abuse allegations in Russian sports as well as the alleged involvement of state officials in manipulations with performance enhancing drugs, particularly at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia's Sochi.

"It is not up to me to accept advice, since it is Alexander (Zhukov, the president of the Russian Olympic Committee), who has to convene a meeting on this issue and take the responsibility," Mutko said, reports Tass news agency.

"I can say only one thing, if we pay, than we will pay on the grounds of a concluded deal with the IOC," Mutko stated adding that "we must not simply transfer the money from our account as we need the reasoning to do so."

An IOC commission, led by Samuel Schmid, established that Russia allegedly employed a system of manipulations with doping samples collected from national athletes.

--IANS

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