‘CAS refusal to reverse ban on Russian Paralympic team political’

Moscow, Aug 23 (IANS) Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said on Tuesday the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) had adopted a "political decision" rejecting the Russian appeal against the non-admission of the country's athletes to the Rio Paralympics.

"The decision is not in the legal framework - it's more political than judicial. There were no reasons to dismiss (the appeal), but it happened," Mutko said, reports Xinhua.

"We will study the possibility of further steps, and probably take a decision," the minister said, expressing regret that "those bodies that should defend Paralympians do not do it and punish them instead."

Earlier on Tuesday, the CAS said in a statement that it had dismissed the appeal filed by the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) against the decision of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) to suspend RPC's membership.

The IPC took the decision to suspend Russia from participating in the September 7-18 Games following the publication of the McLaren Report and additional information it has since received from the report's author.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) published the independent McLaren Investigation Report on July 18, which said the Russian state manipulated the doping control process and recommended to IOC to ban the participation of the entire Russian team from the Rio Olympic Games.

But the International Olympic Committee (IOC) refused to yield and left it to individual sports associations to decide on the Russian participation. After that 278 Russian athletes were cleared for the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics.