IOC commissions will respect the due process and give all sides a fair chance to be heard, the IOC press service said

MOSCOW, January 11. /TASS/. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will make a decision regarding Russia’s participation in the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang following relevant findings of the two IOC commissions, the governing Olympic body told TASS on Wednesday. "For the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, two IOC commissions have been set up to coordinate our response," the IOC press service told TASS. "They will respect the due process and give all sides a fair chance to be heard." "Following this, the IOC will take all appropriate measures and sanctions," according to the statement from the IOC.

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"As regards the competitions currently taking place or planned in Russia - this is a matter for the respective International Federations," the statement said. "Many of them have already taken action and continue to work closely with WADA." Last year the IOC announced its decision to set up two separate commissions to probe doping abuse allegations in Russian sports as well as alleged involvement of state officials in manipulations with performance enhancing drugs, particularly at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia’s Sochi. The first of the two commissions is an Inquiry Commission, chaired by the former President of Switzerland, Samuel Schmid. The commission is addressing the "institutional conspiracy across summer and winter sports athletes who participated with Russian officials within the Ministry of Sport and its infrastructure, such as RUSADA, CSP and the Moscow Laboratory along with the FSB, in particular with regard to the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014," according to the IOC. The second investigative body at the issue is a Disciplinary Commission, chaired by IOC Member Denis Oswald. This commission addresses the question of the alleged doping and manipulation of samples concerning the Russian athletes, who participated in the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014. "In the context of this Disciplinary Commission, all the samples of all Russian athletes who participated in Sochi will be re-analyzed," the IOC stated last month. "The re-analysis will be to establish whether there was doping or whether the samples themselves were manipulated." The National Anti-Doping Organizations (NADO) urged in its statement late on Tuesday night to ban Russian athletes from all international sports competitions as well as to strip the country of the right of hosting global tournaments.