Russian athletes uzhestochat penalties for doping

As from 1 January 2009 deadline for the disqualification of the first doping violation for Russian athletes can be increased to four years. This was stated by the President of the Russian athletics federation (VFLA) Valentin Balahnichev in an interview with the newspaper Kommersant. Currently, the term is disqualified for doping two years.

According to Balahnicheva, VFLA, Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) and the International Athletics Federation (IAAF) held a meeting to discuss issues of cooperation in the fight against doping in Russia. The meeting discussed the question of increasing the period of disqualification. If this measure does not yield results, may decide to impose a lifetime disqualification for the athletes, for the first time found to use steroids.

President VFLA expressed the view that the use of Erythropoietin, steroids and psihostimulyatorov can ever deprive athletes the right to participate in competitions.

Also Balahnichev actually found guilty of seven Russian legkoatletok that summer of 2008 have been suspended from competition for suspected phishing doping samples. According to the President VFLA, in this case there had been a "banal violation of the sports law." Balahnichev noted that athletes who fell for doping, "responsible for 99.9 percent of cases."