Russia will not pursue criminal charges in doping scandal

The Russian sports minister said Friday that no one will face criminal charges for the doping scandal that has crippled much of the nation’s sporting infrastructure.

“The General Prosecutor’s office carefully examined the report in question and did not find a single legally supported fact to open any kind of case,” Vitaly Mutko told Sportfakt.ru.

Russia’s track and field program has been banned from international competition following a World Anti-Doping Agency report that found evidence of systemic cheating among officials, coaches and athletes.

In other sports, tennis star Maria Sharapova heads a growing list of Russian athletes who have tested positive for meldonium, a heart medication recently added to the banned substance list.

Earlier this week, the country’s hockey association replaced its entire under-18 team just before the world championships, replacing it with an under-17 squad. Mutko said that officials did not want to take the risk that players from the original roster would test positive for meldonium.