The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) provides an expenditure item of 30 mln rubles ($476 thousand) in the budget to provide legal protection of interests of Russian athletes, ROC President Stanislav Pozdnyakov told TASS.
ROC made a decision in May to establish two interdisciplinary working groups in accordance with the assignment of the Russian President to intensify work on protection of ‘clean’ athletes and restoration of membership of the Russian Federation of Track and Field Athletics.
“We provide an extra item of expenditures amounting to 30 mln rubles ($476 thousand) for implementation of activities related to supporting protection of rights and interests of Russian athletes in the legal sphere. Furthermore, we plan to broaden cooperation with leading Russian higher educational institutions where specialists in jurisprudence are educated,” Pozdnyakov said.
“ROC on its part, having a qualified and experienced legal department, plans in cooperation with the federal chamber of defense counsels to initiate forming a common pool of practicing lawyers, who will be ready to promptly provide qualified legal support to Russian athletes in judicial and other instances at the international sport stage,” he noted.
“The work on legal protection of rights and interests of our athletes is one of the most important current tasks. This is a highly challenging topic requiring comprehensive approach towards solution of the most different, sometimes delicate cases with abundance of specific features,” Pozdnyakov said.