The head of the Russian Skating Union Alexei Kravtsov said that the banned drug meldonium had been planted on skaters whose doping tests have shown positive results, the Kommersant news agency reported Wednesday.
He added that the accused skaters are going to defend their version of events in an appeal to the International Skating Union.
"The drug was deliberately planted on us by some other athletes. We will need to identify them," Kravtsov said, Kommersant reported.
On Tuesday, Olympic short track champion Semyon Elistratov and five-time skating world champion Kulizhnikov were suspended from competition after meldonium was detected in their blood.
The chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) independent commission Dick Pound expressed his doubt that Russia would be able to deal with its doping problem in time to make it to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the Reuters news agency reported Wednesday.
“There seems to be some evidence that they’re just changing deck-chairs on the Titanic," he told an anti-doping conference, Reuters reported.
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