MOSCOW, February 8. /TASS/. All criteria set out by the International Paralympic Committee on the full reinstatement of the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) can be accomplished, RPC President Vladimir Lukin said on Friday.
The IPC announced a decision on Friday to conditionally lift the suspension of the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) by March 15, which gives the right for Russian Para athletes to compete at the international tournaments under the national flag after that date. However, the conditional lift of the suspension will be in force until December 31, 2022, which means that the Russian side must strictly abide by a number of special requirements to avoid a recurrence of sanctions.
"We have thoroughly studied all IPC requirements and will study them even more in the future," Lukin said. "We believe that there is nothing in them to pose obstacles for our constructive work. All set requirements can be accomplished."
The RPC president said he was happy with today’s decision of the IPC and also thanked the Russian Sports Ministry for its contribution into the RPC membership reinstatement.
"This lengthy work is about to be completed, numerous problems have been accumulated and we have been acknowledging that not everything was smooth, particularly in our anti-doping sphere," Lukin said. "It all required a very precise and lengthy work, and I must say that the Sports Ministry and [Minister] Pavel Kolobkov pursued this work fervently and we are very grateful for this contribution."
On August 7, 2016, the IPC decided to bar the entire Russian team from taking part in the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on August 23, 2016 upheld the IPC’s ruling that came on the heels of a report delivered a month earlier by the WADA Independent Commission, chaired by Canadian sports law professor Richard McLaren.
Besides collectively punishing the Russian national team by banning it from the Rio Games, the IPC also decided to suspend the RPC membership in the international organization.
Besides skipping the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Brazil due to the imposed sanctions the Russian Paralympians almost missed the 2018 Winter Paralympics in PyeongChang as only few of them were cleared to participate in the neutral status.