NAnd so they have paid their fine after all, the Russians. Probably. Three days before the final deadline, Sports Minister Oleg Matyzin reported that he had made available to his country’s athletics federation (Rusaf) the 6.3 million dollars that have been due for the past month and a half to pay a fine for doping manipulation and legal costs. A little later, the Rusaf announced that the amount had been transferred.
With the promise to finally pay, Matyzin prevented ten days ago at the last minute the exclusion of Russian athletes from association, world sport and – worst punishment – from the Olympic Games. The Russian federation remains suspended, the Olympic participation of athletes like the world champions Marija Lassizkene and Anschelika Sidorowa, the best in the world in high jump and pole vault, as well as hurdler Sergej Schubenkow remains in the balance.
Money and words are not enough
If all goes well, the World Athletics will grant them the status of neutral athletes. The million-dollar payment, the receipt of which World Athletics has not yet confirmed, does not regulate everything. By the end of the month, the Russians have to present a verifiable concept of how they want to reorganize the organization, which is permeated by doping and manipulation and dominated by unteachable representatives of a doping mentality. From Matyzin’s house it sounds that they want to protect the interests of Russian athletes and assert their right to participate in international competitions and their full membership in the world association.
But money and pithy words are not enough. In 2014, before the state fraud at the Olympic Winter Games was exposed, the runner Yulia Stepanova made the systematic doping of Russian athletics public – and had to flee her homeland. In November 2015, the world association suspended the Russians – also out of self-protection. Under the acronym IAAF, which has since been dropped, he was not a victim but a partner in the great deception. Former President Lamine Diack, whose Vice President Sebastian Coe was for years, was on trial in Paris for money laundering and infidelity; the verdict is still pending.
When dealing with the Russians, Coe must avoid the impression of complicity. He set up a commission that demonstrates irritating long-suffering by traveling and negotiating, negotiating and traveling – to no avail. At the same time, however, they and the association show that concessions like the conclusion of the International Olympic Committee to the Russian affair are not necessary. If the Russians want to play, at least in athletics, they have to provide a minimum of security that they are following the rules.
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