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Russia says it can’t afford to pay fine to World Athletics

DÜSSELDORF, Germany (AP) — Russia is expected to miss Wednesday’s deadline to pay more than $6 million to the governing body of track and field.

Russian track federation president Yevgeny Yurchenko told the Tass state news agency on Wednesday that “the money, unfortunately, has not been found.”

Russia has to pay a $5-million fine and what World Athletics said was a further $1.3 million in costs from investigations, monitoring programs and legal battles linked to various anti-doping violations.

World Athletics said in March that it would suspend the “authorized neutral athlete” program, which allows Russians to enter international competitions even though their federation is suspended, if Russia didn’t meet the July 1 deadline for the fine.

Russians with that neutral status won six medals at last year’s world championships, including gold for Mariya Lasitskene in the high jump and for Anzhelika Sidorova in the pole vault.

The World Athletics council is next due to meet July 29-30.

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