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MOSCOW, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Russia is ready to submit its 400-strong national team ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympic Games to prove the athletes have not used banned drugs, Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said Thursday.
"Russia is ready for testing its whole team once again ahead of the Olympics, even prepared to pay for this," Mutko was quoted as saying by Tass news agency.
On Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee in a press release backed the previous ban of Russian track and field team by the International Association of Athletic Federations for systematic doping, but said that athletes could be cleared to compete at the Olympic Games on individual basis.
On Wednesday, the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) also announced a decision to cut the quota of Russia for participation in the 2016 Olympics by one male and one female athlete after traces of doping had been found in retests of samples from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics.
Quotas have also been cut for the national teams of Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, DPR Korea, Romania and Uzbekistan, the IWF said in a statement.
As a response, Mutko said the Russian Weightlifting Federation was going to contest the IWF decision at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, an international arbitration body established to settle sport related disputes headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland.
"Making such decisions ahead of the Olympics is disrespect for athletes and national teams," Mutko said.
