Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia should take responsibility for doping and for the fact that the anti-doping system in the country hasn’t worked. However Putin’s 1 March speech, made during a a meeting on preparations for the 2019 World Winter Universiade in Krasnoyarsk, appears to be a far cry from recognition that the findings of Richard McLaren are correct.

“It’s our fault”, Putin said at the meeting, reported the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF). “Russia should recognise cases of doping, conduct an investigation and identify the perpetrators. The most important this is that we must listen, in spite of the failures in the work of the [WADA] Independent Commission to what it has done, the results of its work. We must listen to the WADA requirements. Because we must admit that we have reliable, reported cases of doping.”

Putin also said that “there has never been in Russia, never will there be any public support for a doping system. There is only the fight against doping,” reported RusAF. World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) President Sir Craig Reedie welcomed Putin’s comments as a “step in the right direction”.