LAUSANNE: The International Olympic Committee on Sunday decided against hitting Russia with a blanket ban from the Rio Games over state-run doping but laid out unprecedented eligibility conditions for individual Russian athletes.
IOC president Thomas Bach said the body stopped short of an outright ban to protect the rights of clean Russian competitors hoping to take part at the Games which start in two weeks.
But an extraordinary set of checks have been put in place and individuals had to assume "collective responsibility" given the extent of Russia's cheating, Bach said.
"We have set the bar to the limit," he told reporters.
The IOC faced intense pressure to act after a World Anti-Doping Agency report last week detailed a massive cheating programme directed by the Russian sports ministry with help from the FSB state intelligence agency.
The doping affected 30 sports, including at the 2014 Sochi Games and other major events, WADA said, in revelations that widened the worst doping scandal in Olympic history.
Russia's entire track and field squad has already been barred from Rio following a similar WADA report on "state-supported" doping.
WADA, multiple national doping agencies, and several national Olympic committees from across the globe demanded Russia's total ban from Rio.
Others, including top political leaders in Russia insisted that collective punishment was unjust.
Bach said the IOC reached a decision that recognised the stunning nature of the cheating scheme while also sending "a message of encouragement to clean Russian athletes."
"You have to be able to look in the eyes of the individual (clean) athletes concerned," Bach said.
Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko -- a key figure in the WADA report who has been banned from Rio -- hailed the IOC's "objective" decision.
Separately, an IOC ethics commission ruled that 800m runner Yuliya Stepanova, who turned whistleblower on doping in Russian athletics, could not go to Rio even as a neutral.
- Two week timeline -
Following a conference call, the IOC executive implemented a rigorous set of criteria facing each Russian Olympic hopeful.
They include:
- Athletes must be individually cleared by their respective sports federation.
- Federations should not consider the absence of a past positive drug test as evidence of a clean record. Only international tests are valid and there should be no presumption of innocence.
- An expert from the Court of Arbitration for Sport must approve each individual decision.
This sets Russia apart from other countries, like the United States, which is sending doping convicted sprinters Tyson Gay and Justin Gatlin to the Games.
+ No athletes named in the WADA report released last week by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren is eligible.
This multi-layered screening process must be carried out for the more than 300 athletes nominated for Rio by the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) before the Games start on August 5.
"This is a very ambitious timeline, but we had no choice," Bach said.
Russians "have to clear the highest hurdles in order to have chance to compete in the Olympic games," he added.
Mutko told the R-Sport news agency he was "absolutely sure that the majority of the Russian team will meet the criteria," noting however that the conditions were "very tough."
Russia has strongly denied any state role in doping.
- Stepanova barred from Rio -
The IOC also delivered a crushing blow to Stepanova's hopes of competing in Rio.
She had refused to run for Russia and hoped for a special Olympic charter exemption to compete as a neutral after she gave evidence to WADA.
The IOC ethics commission said that while Stepanova "made a contribution to the protection and promotion of clean athletes", Olympic rules did not permit the entry of neutrals.
Also, despite her whistleblower credentials, she is an admitted cheater and her conduct does "not satisfy the ethical requirements for an athlete to enter the Olympic Games."
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