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IOC Upholds IAAF Ban of Russian Track and Field Team, Individual Sports Up to World Governing Body; British Prime Minister Makes Remain Appeal in Front of 10 Downing Street. Aired 8:00a-9:00a ET

Aired June 21, 2016 - 08:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[08:00:12] HANNAH VAUGHAN JONES, HOST: I'm Hannah Vaughan Jones here in London. Welcome to News Stream. We're expecting to bring you two major

events this hour

The IOC will rule on whether Russian track and field athletes will compete at this summer's Olympics, or whether they will be banned from Rio

after reports of widespread doping violations.

Also coming up this hour, British Prime Minister, David Cameron, will lay out his case for the UK staying in the European Union, that's two days

ahead of the critical Brexit vote.

Welcome to News Stream. Any minute now we're expecting to hear a verdict on whether Russia's track and field athletes are Rio bound this

summer. The International Olympic Committee held a closed door meeting in Switzerland to decide if the entire team can compete in the 2016 Summer

Games.

The world governing body for athletics extended its ban of the track and field team last friday after a report uncovered widespread doping.

Well, as soon as the IOC makes its announcement, we will, of course, take you there live.

If Russian athletes are banned from competing, the Olympics would lose one of its strongest track and field teams. Russia was second in the

medal table for athletics at the London 2012 games and their delegation includes some very, very big stars, including pole vaulter Yelena

Isinbayeva. She is the world record-holder in her event and a two-time gold medalist.

Well, despite never be implicated herself, she would fall under any blanket ban against Russian athletes. Well, she's calling the possible

ban a violation of human rights and says she does plan to take action.

For more on this, World Sports' Alex Thomas joins me now here in London. A massive decision coming up. It's going to affect the whole

country, the whole team, and of course these individuals involved as well.

ALEX THOMAS, CNN WORLD SPORT: As things stands, the track and field athletes are giong as part of Russia's overall Olympic team will not be

going to Rio, that's what athletics governing body the IAAF decided on Friday. And very quickly, within 24 hours, the IOC, the International

Olympic Committee, sent out their own statement backing up that decision.

It was thought, because IOC president Thomas Bach is known, by his own admission, to be a

good friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, so there could be a watering down of the sanctions.

But by releasing that statement so quickly and so early, it seems like the IOC have not left themselves much room for maneuver at this special

summit they're holding at the headquarters in Luzanne in Switzerland.

JONES: And the Olympics in Rio have had so much scandal surrounding them already before this started with Zika and the political crisis going

on there in Brazil at the moment. This is just one more thing that they just won't want to deal with, so I guess that would suggest maybe that the

IOC might then side with the IAAF.

THOMAS: Well, if Thomas Bach wants to be nice to his old friend Vladimir Putin, I guess what he can do is use this opportunity, this news

conference that we expect him to speak at any moment now, to turn the focus to other nations that have also had the doping finger pointed at them.

Because the one thing to be very clear at, although Russia has attracted the majoity of the bad headlines, Hannah, this is not just one

country, this is not just one sport. So, there's lots of interesting things that could come out of this news conference. Although, bear in mind

there's also an investigation happening as we speak, another independent one, that the World Anti-Doping Agency have commissioned, into those

specific allegations about the Sochi Winter Games, you remember alleges that Russian special forces snuck into the room and tampered with the urine

and blood samples.

So, I think the IOC would be very nervous to make too bold a declaration of anything now knowing that in two weeks' time, still a few

weeks away from the start of the game, there could be more scandal and more revelations.

JONES: And one of the main problems, I suppose, with this is there's been allegations of a state

sponsored doping program, something that the Russian President Vladimir Putin has been quit to refute straightaway.

THOMAS: Of course. But the evidence of the problems in the anti- doping system in Russia are very clear. And that's part of the reason the IOC released a statement so quickly after the IAAF voted to continue the

ban of Russia's track and field athletes on Friday,m because the evidence is so overwhelming.

So remember the time line is that there were two documentaries on Germany media, one on December '14, another in August of last year. And it

was after the December 2014 one, that WADA have started this independent commission, lead by his former president Dick Pounds, and they reported

back November last year talking about state sponsored doping, using that phrase, and saying that Russia's track and field athletes should be banned,

which is what they've done.

And since then Russia has been trying to reform it's anti-doping process. Its labs accreditation was taken away from it. And they're

trying to show they are -- they contest the drugs in that country the way every other country has to. And they have to do it in the approved way.

But UK anti-doping testers have gone into that country and found that they've been blocked at every turn.

Russian athletes -- every athlete in any sport has to give a certain two-hour window each day where they're going to be so testers can turn up

at any moment. And they've been giving addresses in cities or bases that are controlled by Russia's military. And so the anti-doping testers have

not had access to them.

So, there's been a whole load of reports how Russia has not done enough to show that it's gone back to the correct path of testing for drugs

which is so critical to what we believe on the sport that we see.

JONES: Yeah, Alex, thank you very much. And we, of course, stay across this. I'm sure you as will as well. All the events in Luzanne in

Switzerland where the IOC is expected to give us that decision imminently really I suppose.

Alex, thanks very much.

Now to the other big story of the day, in or out? In two just days' time, voters in the UK will decide whether to stay in the 28-member

European Union or go it alone. Both camps have been ramping up efforts in the last 48 hours. Campaigning had, of course, been put on hold in the

wake of the murder of the MP Jo Cox on Thursday.

Security is one issue at the very heart of this debate. The leave campaign argues that controlling immigration reduces terror threats, but

remain supporters say Britain is safer within the European Union.

Joining me now with more on this is CNN's Phil Black.

Phil, the rhetoric getting even more angry, I suppose, in the last few days of campaigning even though we did see that pause in campaigning just

for a few days after Jo Cox's murder, of course.

What's the main thrust of these final arguments?

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's desperate times, I

guess, Hannah. What they seem to be doing is doubling down on the core messages of each campaign. So from David Cameron and the remain camp, what

you have been hearing really is an emphasis on the fact that Brexit is for life. This is an irreversible decision. There's no going back. And it's

one, as they've said throughout, with potentially, they believe, very significant and negative economic consequences.

And from the Brexiters themselves, really, doubling down on sovereignty, immigration. If you want to control these two things, bring

sovereignty back to the UK, then you should vote to leave from the European Union.

The emphasis obviously is the wavering voter, the undecided, because the opinion polls are

still so very close. We've seen some momentum, it would seem, in some of the poll figures swing to a slight lead for the remain camp, especially

following the murder of Jo Cox. But it's unclear if that's enough to determine or establish a clear lead. And so this will be on the

minds of everyone leading into the very final big television event, the big debate tonight which will take place in front of a huge live audience of

around 6,000 people or so.

You will have Boris Johnson for the exit camp, the former London mayor, a very prominent conservative politician, leading figure of that

campaign, going up against his successor to the mayoralty of London, Sadiq Khan who was recently elected but very strongly in favor of Britain

sticking with the European Union.

Six panelists in all. And as I say, looking to try to secure some sort of clear point or clear advantage in this final stretch leading up to

Thursday's vote, Hannah.

JONES: And, Phil, there's been somewhat unlikely, you might say, celebrities who have been weighing in on this debate today.

BLACK: So we have heard from -- and I guess it depends on which -- who is more likely to influence your vote -- George Soros, for example, the

currency speculator famous for making money by betting against the pound has warned the British people that what they need to know that is in the

event of a Brexit the pound will die by at least 15 percent, he says, possibly more than 20 percent, and that will impact the living standards,

the financial well-being of everyone in the country, he says.

If that doesn't convince you, then there's David Beckham, the football star. He has come out very strongly in favor of remain as well, saying

that for our children, our children's children, he believes that this -- the world really should be trying to solve these situations together.

So, yes, celebrity and expert endorsements continuing right until the very final moments of this campaign, Hannah.

JONES: Phil, thanks very much indeed.

We are now going to take our viewers straight back to Luzanne in Switzerland where, of course, we are awaiting the International Olympic

Committee press conference. This is on the face of the Russian field and track athletes. Let's just listen in as to what's being said there.

(INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE PRESS CONFERENCE)

[08:25:11]

JONES: If you are just joining us here at CNN, we've just been listening to Thomas Bachwho is , the International Olympic Committee

president. He's just been responding to a summit he's just been chairing with regards to Russia's track and field athletes and whether they will,

indeed, be able to compete at the Rio summer games this summer coming up in the next couple weeks.

Alex Thomas is here with us. What exactly did he say in that monologue?

THOMAS: The headline was that Russia's track and field athletes rather than being banned en masse may yet have an escape clause to be in

Rio to try to win gold. It appears that both Russia and Kenya's athletes - - and we yet to find the full transcript of what was said to decide whether it's just the track and field athletes from those two countries or whether

it's athletes, which any sport of the Rio Olympics. There's something like 26, 27 different disciplines, remember, will have to be individually

assessed by the international federation for each of their sports.

So in the case of track and field athletics, the IAAF is the governing body. They have already ruled that all Russia's track and field athletes

are not eligible. And Thomas Bach, the IOC president said they back that decision, repeatedly backed that decision. They said so on Saturday.

But he's also said that individual Russian athletes can make their case. You know, while our anti-doping agency may be disbanded and our

anti-doping procedures shown to be wrong and corrupt over the last 12, 18 months or more, we personally feel we're a clean athlete. We want to be

retested and prove our innocence ahead of Rio.

JONES: So presumably, then, if, say, the pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, who has apparently had a clean record all the way through...

THOMAS: Has been very outspoken against this ban.

JONES: If she, then, goes to her Russian federation and does all the relevant testing and they say, yes, you're clean. She can then go to Rio

despite the fact that the IAAF had ruled that she can't and despite the fact that the IOC has said that it fully supports the IAAF's ruling?

THOMAS: I don't think so. I think the federation she'll have to go back to is back to the IAAF who, as you quite rightly said, have already

said she's banned as part of the blanket ban.

She would need to provide evidence that hasn't already been considered as to why she's clean. So normally I guess an athlete is presumed innocent

until proven guilty, but in the case of athletes who have been living and training in Russia, because the doping system is already been shown by hard

evidence to have been flawed for so long, because of the media investigations and then the subsequent probe by WADA's independent

commission, the onus is really on those athletes to show their innocent, not proven to be guilty.

Some will argue that Thomas Bach, because of his friendship with Russia's president Vladimir Putin, is rather trying to shift the blame,

shift the decision making process onto the international sports federations. And also say, look, it's not just track and field, as one

sport, it's not just Russia, it's Kenya as well. And it's other sports. So, we're asking all sports in all countries to re-examine and retest even

some of these doping samples and make sure there aren't any scandals when the Rio games get under way in August.

JONES: Alex, stand by for us, if you will, I want to get some more reaction to that IOC verdict, that declaration from the IOC president.

Our senior international correspondent Matthew Chance is live from Russia with the very latest.

Matthew, your reaction -- or what you think the Russian reaction will be to that IOC declaration?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, well, it's going to be immensely disappointing but not altogether unexpected. In

fact, there's already been a number of statements that have been emerging over the past hour or so as we were waiting for this public announcement to be made. You hear of an athletics

event here in central Russia where one of Russia's most famous athletes, the pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, is going to be taking part later today.

We're going to be interviewing her.

And she's been one of those athletes that have been outraged at the fact that the entire team of

track and field is being punished for what she says is the wrongdoing of just a few individuals. Of course, the IAAF makes the point that in

Russia, because of its deep-seated problems with doping, you don't know who is clean and who isn't.

Let me give you some of the reaction that's come to us, though, over the past few minutes really. First one, from the Russian Olympic committee

making some very strong statements saying that banning clean athletes goes against the Olympic charter and threatens the Olympic movement. There's

also a lot of calls from public figures and from sports people here in Russia to boycott the Olympics, for Russia to boycott those games.

The Kremlin was asked about this earlier today in a conference call with reporters. The spokesman for the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, said that --

first of all, he refused to rule out a boycott categorically, but he did say that nobody wants that precedent.

And then thirdly, a number of individual athletes, including a couple of race walkers and some

others as well have decided to pursue their claims to overturn the ban through the court of arbitration for sports which is in Switzerland in

Luzanne, of course, which would be the last opportunity they could have to have the bans on them overturned. Their argument, again, would be, look,

we've never tested positive for banned substances. Why should we be punished?

JONES: Yeah, Matthew, just to reiterate what the IOC president said, he said that the IOC, the

International Olympic Committee, respects, approves, and supports the IAAF decision which, of course, upheld that ban against Russia's track and field

athletes.

We have heard, as you just said, Matthew, that lots of reaction coming from across Russia at the moment. One claim saying that the IAAF decision

is legally indefensible. Is that something that you think individual athletes might then take up, a legal claim that their human rights,

perhaps, have some way been abused?

CHANCE: Well, I know for sure that that's what a number of athletes, including Yelena Isinbayeva, this world champion pole vaulter, two-time

gold medalist at the Olympic Games, three-time world champion -- she's the current world record holder. She's here later today. This is exactly her

position, and she's not alone in that. And it's a relatively strong legal position in the sense that one of the principles of our legal systems of

justice is that you're innocent until proven guilty and if there's no evidence against you as an individual, then you can't be found guilty. I

mean, that's the principle of law in civilized societies.

And so that's what the athletes are saying has been violated, that principle, and that's why they're going to seek legal recourse in whatever

courts they can and that court of arbitration for sports in Switzerland is the obvious place where these cases could be heard.

JONES: Matthew, Alex was telling us a bit earlier about Vladimir Putin, the Russian president and his friendship with Thomas Bach, the

International Olympic Committee president. How will President Putin respond to this ruling, this declaration, do you think?

CHANCE: Well, he's not going to be happy obviously. I mean, I think he has a relationship

with Thomas Bach in the sense that Russia staged what was considered at the time and extremely successful winter games in Sochi in 2014. And Russia

is, of course, a major player when it comes to sports in general. It's hosting the World Cup in 2018 as well.

You know, sports has been a major priority for Vladimir Putin. He's seen athletic excellence, sporting occasions, the Olympics, the World Cup,

as part of his policy, part of his strategy to rebuild the image of Russia, to rebuild it as a great power in the world as well.

And, you know, the country, and, therefore, Putin, has had some serious setbacks over the course of the past few weeks and months. I mean,

they were kicked out, of course, of the Euro 2016 championships by Wales 3- 0 last night in a game, which didn't go down very well, I can tell you. And now this, which is obviously much bigger, being excluded the track and

field athletes being excluded from the Olympic games in Rio, I mean this is not going to sit well either with the Russian president or with the people

who he governs in the country.

They're very angry about it.

And one of the lines you hear a lot is that this is yet another example of a western conspiracy to push down Russia to make it look bad in

the eyes of the international community. And that's a view that is very strongly held by athletes, by politicians and by ordinary Russians here.

JONES: Matthew, we will have to leave it there for the time being. We will, of course, get more reaction from if you receive it and if you do

indeed speak to Isinbayeva, the pole vaulter, and see what her reaction is to this upholding of the ban.

Thank you very much indeed, Matthew Chance for us there.

And we want to take our viewers now just to some live pictures. You can see Downing Street in

central London. We are expecting the British prime minister David Cameron to appear through those doors and come out to address the public very

shortly. It is just two days' time, of course, until we have that referendum on whether or not Britain should remain within the European

Union.

David Cameron himself is a prominent remain campaigner. This will be his last, we understand, last public speech before that referendum takes

place.

There's lots of campaigning going on across the country. And so we will, of course, bring you

what the Prime Minister David Cameron has to say as soon as he appears through those doors, 10 Downing Street.

In the meantime, to the U.S. now and Donald Trump's campaign could take on a different tone following a major shake-up on Monday. The

presumptive Republican nominee fired his long-time campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, then a top Trump adviser resigned

after tweeting ding dong the witch is dead in response to that firing.

Our Dana Bash sat down with Lewandowski to find out what led to his abrupt departure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[08:35:05] DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT; What happened? Why were you fired?

COREY LEWANDOWSKI: I don't know. I don't know the answer to that.

BASH: But the answer, according to multiple GOP sources, is Donald Trump...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: And we'll return to that story as soon as we can. In the meantime, we're going to take you straight down to Downing Street in

central London. David Cameron, the British prime minister, is speaking.

(DAVID CAMERON PRESS CONFERENCE)

JONES: David Cameron speaking just two days ahead of that crucial EU referendum vote. He's been talking about security and safety, the economy,

and a direct appeal as well to the older generation to think about what this means for the younger generation and how they vote on Thursday.

Let's speak to our Phil Black who has been listening in to that final speech. Phil, Brits don't quit. That was the message.

[08:44:09] BLACK: Yeah, among others, Hannah. And a lot of the messages we've heard before where it comes to security, the economy, the

opportunities for future generations and so forth. These have been regular themes that David Cameron has mentioned throughout the campaign. But what

makes this interesting is the location, the setting, Downing Street, very much using the authority of the prime minister's office, setting himself,

leaning on the credibility that comes with him being the man who is doing the job, taking on the responsibility of leading the country as he has done

for six years.

He referred during the speech to the work he has been doing in that building, pointing to the

Downing Street building behind him and so forth. So this is more than just David Cameron explaining why he believes that Britain should stay with the

EU, it's why he as prime minister -- this is very much the message, why he as the man responsible for leading the country believes that it is clearly

in the interest of the country to stay with the European Union.

And he said several times throughout, if I didn't believe that we were better for whatever reason, whether it was security, the economy, and so

forth, he said he would say so. But as the man, as he referred to repeatedly, that has to make the decision, has been responsible

for leading, who was focused on building the economy, because he believes that that has been the way to improve the lives of British people

everywhere, he believes that staying with the EU is the clear choice.

Appealing to older generations, that was interesting. He was effectively saying think of the children, think of those yet unborn. He

made the point that this is going to impact them most of all. Think of the opportunities that they will want to have.

So it was a direct appeal, he said, to people his age and older to consider the imperfections of the European Union, but also think about what

it will mean to future generations as well, Hannah.

JONES: And Phil, in addition to that that direct appeal to the older generation also saying that once you've made this decision, it is

irreversible. If we vote out, that's it.

BLACK: And that's very much a theme in these dying days of the campaign. It's irreversible. Brexit is for life. They're saying that

because what they want to do is persuade the wavering voters to stick with the status quo. If you're not sure. If you don't think it's worth the

risk, don'ttake the gamble. That's the message. And the undecided vote is so crucial, because this race is still so tight.

JONES: And, Phil, finally that was his sort of final pitch if you like from Downing Street. Can we expect still more of a flurry of final

campaigning tomorrow?

BLACK: Well, we still have got another day and a half. And you'd have to think that, yes,

the remain camp, as the Brexit camp will do, will use all reamining possible time to hammer home their message to try to sway people. As for

David Cameron's plans, we're not precisely sure what he's got planned in the next 36 hours, but tonight is really a big event, the last big

television debate of the campaign. It will take place in front of 6,000 people. A panel there of people from both sides obviously. It's going to

be pretty rowdy, I think, but both sides will be looking to try to secure clear

points, clear wins, again simply because the opinion polls, there's very little between, the country remains pretty evenly split.

JONES: Evenly split in terms of the opinion polls, but the electoral commission I should say did release some figures a little earlier saying

that the campaign funds have been quite different, that it was actually donations were much higher for the leave campaign than they were for the

remain campaign. And I guess that money could really be the final deciding factor here.

BLACK: It's been a big issue over the course of the campaign, obviously, and there are some things to take away from the way people

donate I think. There's been very much an emotive element to the leave campaign, and I think they have tapped into that in a way that the remain

campaign simply hasn't been able to do so.

The leave campaign, it is all about sovereignty. They have claimed to be the patriotic argument, obviously the remain campaign would dispute

that, but they have tapped into a level of emotion among the British people I think that perhaps explains why people would be more prepared to donate

smaller amounts of money and so forth, have a wider donation pool.

But both sides have been using all forms of advertisements and campaign tools at their discretion certainly spending big amounts of money,

but as we keep coming back to. At the moment the result is pretty much something of a deadlock as far as we know, and it will come down to how

those undecided voters cast their vote on polling day on Thursday.

JONES: Phil, great to talk to you. As ever, thanks very much for your analysis of that.

And that is News Stream. I'm Hannah Vaughan Jones. But don't go anywhere, World Sport with Christina Macfarlane is up next.

END