MOSCOW: Yuri Nagornykh has become the latest senior Russian official to lose his job after the doping scandal which clouded the run-up to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Yuri Nagornykh has resigned as a Deputy Sports Minister three months after he was suspended over allegations by a World Anti-Doping Agency report that he had covered up domestic competitor doping cases at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.

A statement from Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Nagornykh, who denied all allegations, had been removed from his post “at his own request.”

Nagornykh’s departure follows that of the removal of Alexander Zhukov as president of the Russian Olympic Committee. By contrast Vitaly Mutko has been promoted to Deputy Prime Minister with his Pavel Kolobkov succeeding him as Sports Minister.

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