MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's attempts to respond to the threat of its athletes being kicked out of global competition were delayed by bad weather Wednesday.
President Vladimir Putin hoped to meet with key sports officials, but his meeting in the Black Sea resort of Sochi was canceled because of a rain storm.
Putin is up against a Friday deadline for track's governing body to decide on whether to suspend Russia - a first step toward excluding its athletes from next year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro - following a damning report from the World Anti-Doping Agency.
WADA has accused Moscow of running a state-sponsored doping program.
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said the country was ready to allow a foreigner to take charge of its anti-doping lab.
Grigory Rodchenkov resigned Tuesday as director of Russia's anti-doping laboratory, a day after he was accused of concealing positive doping tests, extorting money from athletes and destroying 1,417 samples.
The lab - which handled doping tests for last year's Winter Olympics - has stopped work after WADA stripped its accreditation.
In comments reported by Russian agency R-Sport, Mutko said Russia was ready "to put a foreign specialist in charge of the laboratory, if that's what's needed."
The governing body of swimming said Wednesday it is moving its doping test samples taken at the world championships in Russia to the WADA-accredited lab in Barcelona.
FINA said in a statement that it "expresses its deep concern" over the publication of the WADA-commissioned report "and its impact in worldwide sport in general."
IOC President Thomas Bach said he expected the IAAF to take "necessary measures" against the Russian track and field federation on Friday.
Russia could be suspended from the sport - nine months before next year's Olympics - when IAAF President Sebastian Coe convenes a meeting of his ruling council.
Bach told reporters in Lausanne, Switzerland, that "the IAAF has informed us they will take the necessary measures."
Bach said he expects the IAAF decisions will "protect clean athletes."
Russian track federation vice president Tatyana Lebedeva, a former Olympic long jump champion, said the organization has carried out enough reforms to deserve a place at next year's Olympics despite the doping scandal.
Lebedeva told The Associated Press "our federation has done everything possible that was in its power" to reform over the last year, since a German documentary about systematic doping in Russia aired.
According to Russian state news agencies, Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday's scheduled meeting was canceled because heavy rain restricted flights in and out of Sochi, the host city of last year's Winter Olympics.
"The decision was taken by the president to continue his working timetable," Peskov said in comments reported by the RIA Novosti agency.
Putin had been due to meet with track federation coach Yuri Borzakovsky and other Russian sports leaders. The plane carrying the sports officials was forced to land in the city of Mineralnye Vody, where they instead arranged a meeting with Russian Olympic Committee president Alexander Zhukov.
Peskov added that Putin would be briefed and may hold another meeting on sports and doping issues later in the day, depending on how the weather conditions develop.
