MOSCOW, (Pakistan Point News - 23th August, 2016) - Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko on Tuesday slammed the rejection of Russia's appeal against a ban on its Paralympians from Rio over evidence of state-run doping as "political." "The decision is not in the legal domain," TASS news agency quoted Mutko as saying of the Court of Arbitration for Sport's ruling. "It is more political than legal. There was no reason for rejection but it happened.
" Russia last week appealed a unanimous decision by the International Paralympic Committee to suspend the country over evidence of state-sponsored doping. "The bodies that are meant to protect Paralympians don't protect them but punish them instead," Mutko said. "And this is of course sad." The president of Russia's Paralympic Committee, Vladimir Lukin, last week praised CAS for having "been known to show balance and make decisions competently in many cases" and said he was confident Russia would win its appeal. Russia narrowly escaped a blanket ban from the Rio Olympics last month when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) left it up to international sports federations to determine which Russians were eligible to compete while granting itself a final say.