The Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko, who was branded by Pound as “complicit” in the cover‑up, threatened to withdraw all funding from anti-doping in Russia and said that the country was being persecuted. The acting head of Araf said it was not for Wada to call for suspensions. Vadim Zelechenok told the R-Sport TV station: “Any suspension should be discussed at the meeting of the IAAF in November. It should be proven that any violations were the fault of the federation and not individual sports people. We should be given a chance to clear our names.”