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		</div><p>The Russian sports minister has said no-one will face criminal charges over the worst doping scandal in the country&#8217;s history.</p>
<p>A report in November by a World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) commission alleged systematic, state-sponsored drug use in Russian track and field and a widespread cover-up of doping.</p>
<p>The former head of the Russian track federation was accused of a role in extorting €450,000 from a marathon runner and was later banned for life from global track and field.</p>
<p>Sports minister Vitaly Mutko told Russian sports portal Sportfakt that Russian prosecutors &#8220;carefully examined the report in question and did not find a single legally supported fact to open any kind of case&#8221;.</p>
<p>The Wada report led to Russia being suspended from all international track and field, including the Olympics.</p>
<p>Mr Mutko admitted that Moscow had been forced to withdraw players from its national teams at major competitions because of the risk they could test positive for meldonium, a drug for patients with heart disease which was widely used as a supplement in Russian sports but was banned for 2016.</p>
<p>The ban prompted a spate of positive tests among top Russian athletes, including tennis star Maria Sharapova.</p>
<p>Mr Mutko&#8217;s comments came a day after almost the entire Russian national under-18 hockey team was cut from next week&#8217;s world championships and replaced with an apparently weaker under-17 squad. The change was announced the day before the under-18 team had been expected to fly to the US.</p>
<p>He said some players had taken meldonium while it was still legal but that Russian officials feared it could have remained in their bodies.</p>
<p>&#8220;If an athlete or a group of athletes took it in October or November, we don&#8217;t know if it&#8217;ll be found or not (in testing),&#8221; he Mutko said in comments reported by the state news agency Tass. &#8220;We&#8217;re minimising risks.&#8221;</p>
<p>He did not explicitly link his comments to the hockey situation. Russian Hockey Federation president Vladislav Tretiak previously said the roster change was &#8220;tactical&#8221;.</p>
<p>It was the latest in a string of surprise team changes in Russian sports in recent weeks.</p>
<p>The entire national men&#8217;s curling team was changed a day before its world championships, with the Russian Curling Federation denying a link to meldonium. The replacement team went on to lose nine of 11 games.</p>
<p>In volleyball, Russian club Gazprom Yugra dropped its top players ahead of the final of the European CEV Cup, which it lost. No explanation was given.</p>
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