Banning team(s) in Olympics defies its very spirit

Ibne Siraj :
Ban on the entire Russian team at the Paralympics in Rio is the latest example of how sport has become a front in the US-led propaganda war against Russia. Russian Paralympians who have never done anything wrong have been deprived of the chance to compete in an event they’ve spent the last four years preparing for. And all because they happen to have a passport marked Russian Federation.
The racism is blatant and there for all to see. Other countries have drug cheats, but they avoid blanket bans. Only in the case of Russia are the majority expected to suffer for the sins of the few. But because Russians are the victims, and Russia is the ‘official enemy’ of the US superpower, there is no condemnation from self-styled western liberals, who are normally so quick to accuse critics of US foreign policy of being racist. Far from it, western liberals along with their neocon allies have been in the forefront of the campaign to put Russia in the international sin bin.
Let us have a close look at the doping allegations against Russia and who is making them and we find surprise that all roads lead back to the US and its closest NATO allies. The International Paralympics Committee (IPC), whose chairman. Sir Philip Craven, is British, and which has nine representatives from NATO countries on its 15-member governing board based its decision to ban all Russian athletes on the Canadian lawyer Mclaren’ report.
The report is cited by supporters of a Russian ban as if it’s a work of unquestionable authority. In fact it’s a deeply flawed document, which makes plenty of charges, but which fails to back them up with the evidence. It’s not so much a report, as an indictment.
The Russian doping scandal has raised a sharp conflict between the rights of individual athletes and the fight against doping.
But the question is: Is it fair to ban all Russian athletes from the Olympics? When is it OK to potentially deprive clean athletes of a chance to compete in order to punish their associates who cheated? What does all this mean for the Rio Olympics? U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) Chief Executive Travis Tygart wrote, “to protect clean athletes, the Russian track and field federation must not be allowed to participate in the Rio Olympics.”
The USADA has also pushed for a comprehensive investigation of all Russian sports and if such an investigation substantiates allegations that Russian officials have interfered with anti-doping tests, “then the entire Russian delegation should be barred not only from the 2016 Olympic Games but from international competition indefinitely,” Tygart wrote.
While the 2014 Winter Olympic Games culminated in a great success for Russia (its sportsmen won a record thirty-three gold medals), the 2016 Rio Games are marked by a scandal of unparalleled magnitude. The discovery of massive doping violations has led to a large-scale disqualification of Russia’s sportsmen. Russian athletes are banned from competing at the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, while other sportsmen’s fates are left to decisions of an individual’s sports’ governing bodies. Yet this story has more to do with the ethical, rather than purely sports-related, issues.
Russians, one of the most sports-blessed nations in the world, largely share Vladimir Putin’s opinion that their country was ‘unfairly treated” and describe the ban as a ‘politically motivated strategy” of certain western countries to ‘purposefully humiliate the Russian athletes”. According to a recent poll, half of the Russians thought the use of illicit drugs did not negatively affect their interest in the competition and a sense of pride on the success of their athletes.
Another poll said only 7 percent of the respondents believed that the doping accusations were true, while an absolute majority (55 percent) described it as “a politically motivated unfair treatment of Russia by its competitors”. A third of Russian respondents believed that “sportsmen from other countries use illicit drugs as well”, yet “only Russia got punished”.
According to Putin, banning the Russian athletes from the Olympics is unjust and he is unhappy asking “Why should the so-called clean athletes suffer?’ He said banning clean athletes does not go into the framework of civilized behavior.
 It is “unjust and unfair” that the ban on Russian athletes imposed for systemic doping was upheld by the sport’s governing body. Putin, however, insisted that the government is trying to crack down on doping, and was not behind it.
He said: “We feel indignation ourselves when we face the problems of doping and we try to cut this and punish the culprits.
But the so-called clean athletes, why should they suffer? That is not understandable to me. However, there were problems with the McLaren Report, released on July 16, which was strongly influenced by media reports, public opinion and official decisions regarding the Russian participation in the Olympics.
The problems, among others, are: (1) the report relied primarily on the testimony of the chief culprit Dr Grigory Rodchenkov, (2) The report concluded that Rodchenkov is credible and truthful with little demonstrated proof, (3) The investigation did not hear the factual corrections or counter-arguments of the Russian authorities, (4) The investigation excluded a written rebuttal supplied by one of the accused Russian individuals, (5) The western media and the McLaren Report put the blame on all Russian athletes instead of the guilty ones, (6) The report claimed to have evidence but did not disclose it and (7) The investigation was neither thorough, nor comprehensive.
Following the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) Independent Commission report in late 2015, the Russian athletes were tested through international certified laboratories. The frequency of testing has increased in an effort to demonstrate compliance with anti-doping rules and regulations. If there was still concern that Russian athletes were somehow cheating, the testing regime at the Rio Olympics could have been escalated even more.
Instead, WADA and the Mclaren Report have recommended banning all Russian athletes from the Olympics, presumably to embarrass and punish the Russian authorities, obviously to please the anti-Russian western countries. Instead of fighting doping in athletics, this looks like a politically motivated action, which is likely to increase international tension while decreasing the inclusiveness and quality of the Rio Olympics.
A survey by the independent Levada Center showed that 71 percent thought the agency’s evidence of systematic doping by Russia was not convincing; 83 percent disapproved of talks about banning Russia from the Olympics. “Of course, it’s politics,” said Grigory Klimov, a former athletics coach, when asked about the doping scandal. “Sanctions aren’t working. We are surviving and even flourishing. So how can they get us? Take away the Olympics from us,” Klimov said. “It’s not fair. There shouldn’t be collective responsibility,” he added.
“There should be a presumption of innocence. How can I answer for my comrade?” The coach, Alexander Tsyplakov, similarly drew a parallel with the Cold War, which he said had never ended: “Cold War, hot war and information war.
There’s always victims and ruined fates.” Tsyplakov said the doping accusations had been made up, expressing an increasingly widespread belief that a plot is afoot to deprive Russia of the 2018 World Cup.