Stanislav Pozdnyakov, left, meets Pere Miró today ©IOC

New Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) President Stanislav Pozdnyakov said the fight against doping is his country's top priority following a visit to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) headquarters in Lausanne.

Pozdnyakov, elected to replace Alexander Zhukov in the top ROC position on May 29, met with the IOC's deputy director general Pere Miró in the Swiss city today.

He also met with Olympic Solidarity Commission chairman Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, the President of the Association of National Olympic Committees, to sign a four-year agreement.

This deal is said to include "international cooperation measures, including measures against anti-doping rules violations".

An agreement such as this is standard practice for the Olympic Solidarity Commission, who usually sign anti-doping deals with the larger National Olympic Committees (NOCs).

But this partnership takes on added significance after the IOC suspended the ROC and forced Russian athletes to compete as neutrals at the 2018 Winter OIympic Games in Pyeongchang.

This was punishment for the "systematic manipulation" of the anti-doping system carried out by the country at Sochi 2014.

Stanislav Pozdnyakov said anti-doping was the country's top priority ©Getty Images
Stanislav Pozdnyakov said anti-doping was the country's top priority ©Getty Images

The IOC quickly reinstated the ROC just days after the conclusion of Pyeongchang 2018 in February, however, despite two of the Olympic Athletes from Russia delegation failing drugs tests during the Games.

"The ROC's goal is to ensure that the careers of athletes do not depend on doping," said Pozdnyakov,  a four-time Olympic and 10-time world champion fencer who beat Alexander Popov in the Presidential election. 

"We have made the fight against doping the foremost priority in our activities for the coming years."

Pozdnyakov used his visit to tell Miró about the ROC's strategic plan up until 2020.

Future collaborations between the ROC and Olympic Solidarity, the IOC's mechanism to financially assist NOCs, was another issue on the agenda.

Also discussed was the ROC's anti-doping seminar which it held in Moscow on June 1.

In attendance were 330 young athletes, with 70 per cent of these due to take part at this year's Summer Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires.

Olympic Solidarity supported the seminar which featured expert speakers from the World Anti-Doping Agency and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency.

It is due to be repeated annually.