DOPING BAN : RUSSIA PLEDGES TO COOPERATE

MOSCOW : Russia will fully cooperate with the World Anti-Doping Agency [WADA] and International sports authorities after a WADA committee recommended imposing four-year Olympic ban on the country, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.

The WADA committee recommended this week that Russia be banned from the Olympics and world championships in a wide range of sports for four years after Moscow was found to have provided the agency with doctored laboratory data.

The committee's recommendation will be put to WADA's executive committee in Paris on December 9.

''The Russian authorities have been, are, and will be highly open to cooperation with the international sports community as well as with WADA,'' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call.

Earler, Russian sports officials on Tueday spoke out against the committee's recommendations, saying they were overly harsh and would hurt sports there.

Russian sports officials on Tuesday spoke out against a World Anti-Doping Agency [WADA] committee's recommendations that the country be banned from the Olympics for four years, saying this was overly harsh and would hurt sports there.

The recommendations, published on Monday, mean Russia could miss out on the next two Olympic Games and world championships in a wide range of sports.

WADA's independent Compliance Review Committee recommended ban after Moscow provided WADA with laboratory data that was found to have been doctored.

''It's sad. I can only call these recommendations unfair,'' Umar Kremlev, head of Russia's boxing federation, said in a statement. ''Russia plays an important role in the development of global sport. How can such a country be banned?

''These recommendations are harsh, baseless punishment for old problems for which Russia has already been punished.'' [Reuters]