Russia apologises and pleads for athletes to be allowed compete in Olympics

Russia's sports minister Vitaly Mutko has apologised for the doping scandal that has threatened his country's participation at this summer's Olympics and pleaded for their track and field athletes to be allowed to compete in Rio.

He regrets that those using banned substances were not stopped sooner but does not want clean athletes to be punished for the misdemeanours of others, saying that would be "unfair and disproportionate".