The Latest: Russia's sports minister welcomes IOC probes

The Latest on the Russian doping case (all times local to Rio de Janeiro):

2:30 p.m.

Russia's Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko says he welcomes the International Olympic Committee's decision to open investigations into allegations of Russian doping.

A day after a World Anti-Doping Agency report accused Russia - and its sports ministry - of covering up hundreds of doping cases, the IOC opened investigations into top Russian officials and asked for major upcoming winter sports events to be moved out of Russia.

The IOC also said it will "explore the legal options with regard to a collective ban of all Russian athletes" from next month's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Mutko tells Russia's state Tass news agency that "we absolutely share and support today's decisions," and said the main issue was not Russian doping but "an unprecedented attack on the whole Olympic movement," without going into further details.

Mutko earlier Tuesday denied all wrongdoing and said he expected his subordinates to be cleared too.

___

1 p.m.

Two-time Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva has made her case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport that Russian track and field athletes not banned for doping be allowed to compete at the Rio de Janeiro Games.

Leaving a CAS appeal hearing held amid unusual secrecy in Geneva, Isinbayeva told state-owned news channel Russia 24 that she addressed the judging panel and was "optimistic" about the outcome.

CAS aims to give a verdict on Thursday in the appeal filed by Russia's national Olympic body on behalf of 68 athletes.

The ruling will guide the IOC executive board as it weighs whether to ban all Russian teams from the Rio Olympics.

The Russian appeal challenges an IAAF ruling to suspend the All-Russian Athletic Federation and its athletes from international competition because of a state-backed conspiracy of doping and cover-ups.

The IAAF imposed the ban last November and upheld it last month.

___

12:10 p.m.

The IOC executive board wants winter sports governing bodies to "freeze their preparations for major events in Russia" and find host cities in other countries.

A figure skating Grand Prix in Moscow on Nov. 4-6 and a ski jumping World Cup on Dec. 9-11 in Nizhny Tagil are the first events set to be moved from Russia.

The IOC says this is because of "detailed references to the manipulation of samples" at the Sochi Olympics in a World Anti-Doping Agency inquiry report published on Monday that alleged a state-backed doping plot.

The request is an interim order through 2016 which the IOC says its board will review in December.

Events in early 2017 are also at risk from the provisional ruling.

The world championships in bobsled and skeleton are scheduled in Sochi from Feb. 13-26.

From January to March, Russia is also due to stage World Cups in biathlon, big air, cross-country skiing, snowboarding, and speed skating.

___

12:05 p.m.

The International Olympic Committee is to investigate allegations that host nation Russia sabotaged the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

A World Anti-Doping Agency report on Monday accused top Russian officials of directing a program to subvert drug testing at the Olympics, with doped Russian stars' urine allegedly swapped for clean samples in the laboratory by a lab official and an officer of the security services.

The IOC says it will "initiate reanalysis, including forensic analysis, and a full inquiry into all Russian athletes who participated" in Sochi. The investigation will be led by Denis Oswald, a Swiss former rower and senior IOC member.

The IOC executive board adds it "will impose all the appropriate sanctions" if wrongdoing is found.

___

11:45 a.m.

The International Olympic Committee says it has opened investigations into top Russian sports officials and is seeking to bar them from the Rio de Janeiro Games.

The IOC statement comes after a World Anti-Doping Agency report accused Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko and his officials of overseeing a cover-up of hundreds of doping test failures by Russians.

The IOC has set up a disciplinary commission led by former French Constitutional Court judge Guy Canivet to look into "officials within the Russian Ministry of Sports and other persons mentioned in the report."

Ministry officials and those suspected of involvement in covering up doping will not be allowed official accreditation to the Rio Olympics, the IOC adds.

Several officials, including one of Mutko's deputies and his anti-doping adviser, have been suspended on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mutko told Russian agency R-Sport earlier Tuesday.

Mutko, who is not suspended, denies any wrongdoing, and says he expects his subordinates to be reinstated after "temporary" suspensions.

___

11:40 a.m.

The IOC says it will "explore the legal options" for a possible total ban on the Russian team from the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

The International Olympic Committee says calls for a collective ban on the Russians will be judged "versus the right to individual justice."

The IOC executive board met by teleconference on Tuesday to consider steps following the widespread doping allegations detailed in Monday's report by World Anti-Doping Agency investigator Richard McLaren.

WADA recommended that the IOC consider taking the unprecedented step of excluding the entire Russian team from the Rio Games.

The IOC says it will still have to take into account a verdict coming this Thursday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The court is due to rule on Russia's appeal against the IAAF decision to ban its track and field athletes from Rio.

__

10:35 a.m.

Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko has denied covering up hundreds of doping cases, and says he also expects his staff to be cleared.

A World Anti-Doping Agency investigation alleged on Monday that Mutko's ministry "directed, controlled and oversaw" a mass cover-up of Russians' drug test failures over several years, including swapping samples at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Staff including a deputy sports minister and Mutko's own anti-doping advisor were accused of directing which positive tests should be hidden, while Mutko himself was accused of ordering a cover-up when a soccer player tested positive.

Mutko tells Russian agency R-Sport that accusations against him are "absolutely unreal, and impossible."

Mutko remains in his post, while his deputy Yuri Nagornykh is among a group of officials who have been suspended on orders from Russian President Vladimir Putin, though Mutko says "we should regard even this suspension as temporary."

___

10:30 a.m.

The head of track and field in Europe says profound changes are required in Russia before sports events can "confidently welcome" competitors from the doping-tarnished nation.

Russia's athletics team has already been banned from the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, and European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen believes the latest report into Russian doping cover-ups is "damning."

Hansen says "profound cultural, organizational, and procedural changes (are) required before all sports can confidently welcome clean sportsmen and sportswomen from Russia to future international events."

In a statement, Hansen added that athletics officials have a duty to work with Russia on the "rehabilitation process however long and difficult it proves," calling it "absolutely essential for the future credibility of athletics and all sport."

___

10:15 a.m.

Russia Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has complained to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry about what Russia considers U.S. interference in the handling of its doping scandal.

The foreign ministry says that during a telephone conversation with Kerry, Lavrov "expressed everything he thought" about a letter circulated by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, a non-government body, calling for Russia's entire team to be suspended from the Olympics.

The letter, obtained by The Associated Press, was circulated by U.S. and Canadian anti-doping authorities before the release on Monday of a World Anti-Doping Agency report which accused top Russian officials of covering up hundreds of doping cases.

According to the ministry, the letter contained "provocative anti-Russian demands by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to the International Olympic Committee."

There was no immediate comment from the U.S. State Department.

The letter called for the IOC to act by next Tuesday to ensure that Russia's Olympic Committee and sports federations will not be allowed in Rio de Janeiro, where the games start on Aug. 5.

The letter encourages exceptions for Russia-born athletes who can prove they were subject to strong anti-doping systems in other countries.

___

9:30 a.m.

FIFA ethics prosecutors say they will "thoroughly" examine the McLaren Report into state-backed doping which implicates Russia's top football official.

Late Monday, the World Anti-Doping Agency called on FIFA's ethics committee to investigate allegations against Russia Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko.

Mutko, a member of FIFA's ruling council and head of Russia's 2018 World Cup organizing committee, is named in the report for personally intervening to cover up a positive doping test for a foreign player in the Russian Premier League.

Though Mutko's ministry allegedly orchestrated doping cover-ups across Russian sports and the Sochi Olympics, the FIFA ethics panel can act only on football issues.

FIFA ethics prosecutors say "if the report reveals violations of the FIFA code of ethics, the investigatory chamber will take appropriate measures and inform accordingly."

___

9:20 a.m.

The Kremlin says Russian athletes are still focused on competing at the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro despite calls for the entire Russian delegation to be banned over doping.

The World Anti-Doping Agency backs a blanket ban after a report on Monday detailed a cover-up of hundreds of failed drug tests by Russian athletes, allegedly directed by government officials.

President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, says "Russia is preparing for the Olympics, the Russian team is preparing for the Olympics."

Asked whether Russia would boycott the games if it faces punishment, Peskov did not answer directly, but said Russia does not want "such situations to damage the Olympic movement."

___

8:55 a.m.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman says Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko has not been suspended from duties because he is not directly accused of covering up doping.

Putin said on Monday that officials named in the McLaren Report into Russian doping cover-ups would be suspended. A deputy sports minister has been suspended.

Dmitry Peskov says that was because Mutko was not named as someone "directly involved" in the cover-up.

While the report says much of the day-to-day administration of doping cover-ups was done by deputy minister Yuri Nagornykh and Mutko's adviser, Nataliya Zhelanova, Mutko is accused of having ordered a cover-up in one case, that of an unnamed foreign soccer player in the Russian Premier League.

Mutko is one of Putin's oldest allies in the government, having worked with each other for more than 20 years, dating to their time together in the St. Petersburg city administration in the 1990s.

___

7:55 a.m.

London Marathon organizers say a British court has ordered Russian marathon runner Liliya Shobukhova to repay prize and appearance money after being banned for doping.

The High Court judgment mandates Shobukhova to repay 377,961.62 pounds ($498,000) plus costs relating to her 2010 marathon victory and second-place finish the following year in the British capital.

London Marathon chief executive Nick Bitel says "the next step is to get the judgment enforced in Russia. It will be a long and difficult process but we will pursue it as we are determined that cheats should not benefit."

Shobukhova was stripped of her 2009-2011 results when the Russian federation initially banned her for two years for blood doping, and she was ordered to forfeit her prize money.

The IAAF appealed for a four-year ban from the Court of Arbitration for Sport. A settlement was reached in June for Shobukhova to serve a three-year, two-month ban through March 2016.

___

6:50 a.m.

The umbrella body for summer Olympic sports has indicated it is opposed to a ban for the whole Russian team.

The Association of Summer Olympic International Federations, which represents the governing bodies of 28 sports on the Olympic program, says "it is important to focus on the need for individual justice in all these cases."

However, ASOIF also says it will respect a ban on a national team in a particular sport, if imposed by that sport's international federation.

That would cover the doping ban on the Russian athletics team which was upheld by the International Association of Athletics Federations last month, or bans on several weightlifting teams, including Russia's.

ASOIF adds it wants more investigation into allegations that the Russian government covered up hundreds of doping cases.

___

6 a.m.

A hearing is underway to determine whether Russia's entire athletics team will be banned from the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro over doping.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport is hearing an appeal in Geneva by 68 Russian athletes against the IAAF's decision to ban the Russian team due to widespread doping.

Since the World Anti-Doping Agency first accused Russia of systematic doping in November, leading athletes, coaches, and officials have been suspended over drug use.

The case is separate from the McLaren Report, which on Monday detailed a vast cover-up of Russian doping cases, alleging the Russian Sports Ministry ordered hundreds of positive test results to be concealed, including many in athletics.

___

4 a.m.

The executive board of the International Olympic Committee has a teleconference on Tuesday to go over options in the wake of a report that uncovered a state-run doping scheme in Russia that ensnared 28 sports, both summer and winter.

It started in 2011 and ended four years later - well past the time when Russian authorities knew they were under the doping microscope.

After receiving the evidence from the report it commissioned, the World Anti-Doping Agency called for the IOC to consider a ban of Russia's entire Olympic team. But a blanket ban is not a sure thing.

The decision to deliver one is rife with political ramifications that involve a country that sent the third-most athletes (more than 430) to the previous Summer Olympics, four years ago in London. It puts the IOC in the position of ruling against one of its biggest supporters, a nation that spent more than $50 billion hosting the Winter Games in Sochi just two years ago.

IOC president Thomas Bach said the committee wouldn't hesitate to apply the toughest sanctions available. Whether the IOC issues its decision on Tuesday or simply sets the table for it to come later, it could be appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.