MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it does not accept the decision on Monday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to ban Russian teenage figure skater Kamila Valieva for four years for doping.
In a call with reporters, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia would defend the rights of its athletes to the end.
The decision against Valieva effectively stripped the Russian Olympic Committee of its gold medal in the team event at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, but Peskov said Russia would always consider them to be Olympic champions.
The CAS panel determined there had been no scope for Valieva, who was 15 at the time of the offence, to be treated with more leniency than an adult found to have committed an anti-doping rule violation.
Valieva tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine, which prevents angina, at the Russian national championships in December 2021. The result was made known only after she competed in the team event in Beijing.
Her team has said the positive test could have been due to a mix-up with her grandfather’s heart medication.
(Writing by Felix Light; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
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