The Russian media reaction to Wada doping revelations

Disbelief has been the dominant feeling in Russia since the revelations yesterday broke of a “state sponsored” doping culture in the country’s athletics system.

Vladimir Putin’s spokesman has already said that the findings are “unfounded” while the media reaction has been similar.

In Russian newspapers, many followed the government’s lead in playing down the accusations from the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) commission.

The scandal was typically confined to a small item in the sports pages, with only two business papers and the sports dailies giving it front-page space.

“Are they taking Rio away from us?!” read the headline on the front page of Sport Express, referring to calls to ban Russia’s track and field team from next year’s Olympics.

Another sports tabloid, Sovetsky Sport, questioned whether the country’s biggest athletics stars - including London 2012 800m champion Mariya Savinova - could really be guilty of doping on their front page.

Russia has for years revelled in its re-emergence as a sports superpower, topping the medal table at last year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi.

That prestige is again in jeopardy, with the country’s internal intelligence service, the FSB, accused of running surveillance on the Olympic doping lab.

It comes at a time when the country is already under pressure over its hosting of the 2018 World Cup amid the scandals rocking Fifa.