Several Russian rowers filed a libel lawsuit for some 6 million Canadian dollars ($4.5 million) against Richard McLaren, the head of the special investigative team of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), President of Russian Rowing Federation Veniamin Bout told Sputnik on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd January, 2019) Several Russian rowers filed a libel lawsuit for some 6 million Canadian Dollars ($4.5 million) against Richard McLaren, the head of the special investigative team of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), President of Russian Rowing Federation Veniamin Bout told Sputnik on Wednesday."Last summer, we said that we would sue Richard McLaren. We had tried to register the lawsuit for six months and now we have managed to do that. McLaren has not reacted to that yet, I think he is assessing the situation. Several athletes, whose Names I cannot mention, and I filed a lawsuit worth of some 6 million Canadian dollars to the Supreme Court of Ontario," Bout said.
Some Russian rowers were not allowed to take part in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro because they were mentioned in McLaren's report on alleged doping violation in Russia.
McLaren accused Russia of running a state-sponsored doping program while Moscow refuted the accusation saying that it was actively involved in fighting existing doping problems in Russian sports.
