Russia reinstated by IOC following doping scandal

MOSCOW — Russia’s ban from the Olympic movement was lifted Wednesday despite two failed doping tests by its athletes at the Pyeongchang Games.

President Vladimir Putin hailed the move during a Kremlin award ceremony for Olympic athletes, saying “we must turn this page.”

The decision by the International Olympic Committee appears to be an attempt to draw a line under the state-concocted doping scandal that tarnished the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.

The IOC allowed more than 160 athletes it determined were clean to compete as “Olympic Athletes from Russia” in Pyeongchang with a prohibition on the national anthem or flag in venues.

“You can take away any attributes, but you can’t take away our character, and you have proven it with your performance,” Putin said after giving state awards to Olympic athletes. “It has filled us all a sense of pride.”

He referred to members of the Russian ice hockey team performing the national anthem after receiving the Olympic gold.

Russia’s hopes of marching under its flag at Sunday’s closing ceremony in South Korea were stymied by the two positive tests for banned substances, including a curler who had to forfeit his bronze medal. But the IOC said Wednesday that all remaining test results were negative, clearing the path for Russia’s return to the Olympic fold.

Vitaly Smirnov, the head of an anti-doping commission set up by Putin, did acknowledge on Wednesday that “we have a long way to go to get rid of the mistakes, which we made in the past.”

But Russia continues to deny there was state involvement in the plot, which included urine samples in supposedly tamper-proof bottles at the 2014 Olympics being swapped out for clean samples through a “mouse hole” in the wall at a laboratory in Sochi.