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Tretiak says it's impossible to imagine 2018 Olympic Ice Hockey competition without Russia

Russia’s participation in the Winter Olympics is still in question

MOSCOW, October 25. /TASS/. The Russian national ice hockey team is doping-clean and will have no problems whatsoever getting the permission to participate in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in South Korea’s PyeongChang, President of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation (RHF) Vladislav Tretiak told TASS on Wednesday.

"I do not think that Russian ice hockey players will have problems," Tretiak said in an interview with TASS. "Being a member of the IIHF [the International Ice Hockey Federation] I can say that the federation cannot imagine the Olympics without Russia’s participation."

"The IIHF is not playing politics and is guided by the real state of facts," Tretiak said.

"It is clear as of today that the national ice hockey team of Russia is not into the doping abuse issue."

The next Olympics, which are XXIII Winter Olympic Games, will take place in South Korea’s PyeongChang on February 9-25, 2018 and Russia’s participation in the event is still in question.

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

The first of the two commissions is an Inquiry Commission, chaired by the former President of Switzerland, Samuel Schmid. The commission is looking into accusations set out in the McLaren report that alleges the existence of a supposed institutional conspiracy in Russia’s summer and winter sports, in which the country’s state officials were allegedly engaged in.

The second investigative body at the issue is a Disciplinary Commission, chaired by IOC Member Denis Oswald. This commission is tasked to address alleged doping uses and manipulation of samples concerning the Russian athletes, who participated in the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014.

Starting from last year, Russian athletes were constantly under the gun due to numerous doping abuse accusations. The World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) Independent Commission, chaired by Canadian sports law professor Richard McLaren, conducted an investigation into doping allegations in Russian sports and eventually came up in 2016 with two parts to the report, the first delivered in July and the second in early December.