Earlier, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) granted appeals to 28 Russians, whom the IOC had suspended for life from the Olympics after nullifying their Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics results due to anti-doping rule violations.

The West did not present facts and evidence of the use of doping by Russian athletes, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said while speaking at a master class for participants of Leaders of Russia, a national leadership competition.

"Now we are just as categorically, without facts, told yes, the sports arbitration court in Lausanne has exonerated all of your athletes from the list of 32 people and coaches, but it is not necessary to be guided by this decision, because the IOC does not have confidence that the athletes did not take dope. That is, there is no evidence, but there are doubts, there are suspicions. As it turns out, remember how in 1937 the prosecutor of the Soviet Union Vyshinsky said that "confession is the queen of evidence?" And now, as it turns out, even recognition is not necessary. Suspicion is the queen of evidence. So it's probably not very correct to conduct business, it's not very correct, we try to lead our Western colleagues to more constructive relations," Lavrov said.

The Russian Olympic Committee asked the IOC to send 15 invitations to the Games in Pyeongchang for individual representatives of Russia, but was refused on Monday.

IOC in December 2017 suspended the Russian national team from participating in the 2018 Olympics. At the same time, the committee left the opportunity for "pure" athletes to perform at the Games under the Olympic flag.

The Olympic Games in Pyeongchang will be held from 9 to 25 February.