US blamed for Russia’s banning

– Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday that accusations of a state-sponsored doping conspiracy which led to his country’s Olympic banishment were orchestrated by the United States because they “can’t beat us fairly”.

“I think it’s a form of competition without scruples because the US team, obviously, are not capable of beating us fairly at sport,” Lavrov said in an interview broadcast by Rossiya-1 TV.

Many Russian athletes have been banned from taking part in the ongoing Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea. –

Moscow