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 Russian wrestlers may now join the country's track-and-field
athletes in being barred from competing at the Games in August,
after an internal Russian Wrestling Federation (WFR) investigation
uncovered multiple doping cases, WFR President Mikhail Mamiashvili
said.
The disclosure came a day after four Russian athletes were exposed
as having tested positive for the banned drug meldonium, further
damaging Moscow's efforts to overturn a doping suspension in time
for the Olympics starting in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 5.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday his sports
minister, Vitaly Mutko, would remain in his position despite the
scandal. Mutko later said, however, that he was prepared to end his
eight years in the job if asked to do so.
"The country has a leadership who take these decisions. When I see
that the matter concerns me, I will leave my post," R-Sport news
agency quoted him as saying.
Russian sport was thrown into turmoil last year when a report by the
World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) exposed endemic cheating and
corruption in Russian athletics.
 Russian athletes have been suspended from international competition
and will miss the Olympics if the country cannot get the ban
overturned -- a humiliating blow to the pride and prestige of a
sporting superpower.
Since then, at least 18 Russian sportsmen and women have tested
positive for meldonium, complicating Russia's drive to prove itself
compliant with international anti-doping standards.
Mamiashvili said two male wrestlers, 2014 world championship silver
medalist Evgeny Saleev and 2015 World Cup silver medalist Sergei
Semenov, had been caught using meldonium. But he said the sport's
doping problem was widespread.
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"There are tens of positive tests in the team, everyone is in a bad
condition psychologically," Mamiashvili told R-Sport.
No female Russia wrestlers have tested positive for meldonium,
R-Sport reported. The WFR declined to comment.
Talking to the state-owned TASS news agency about his team's chances
of competing at the Rio Games, Mamiashvili said: "It may happen that
simply none of us go."
Meldonium, which is used to treat diabetes and low magnesium levels,
was banned by WADA on Jan. 1 after being linked to increased
sporting performance.
It is particularly popular in Russia and the former Soviet Union,
having been invented in Latvia and used to help Soviet soldiers
fight at high altitude in the 1980s.
R-Sport reported on Monday that around 40 Russian athletes from more
than 10 different sports had tested positive for meldonium in the
first two months of 2016.
(Additional reporting by Maria Kiselyova, Dmitry Rogovitsky and
Darya Korsunskaya; Editing by Ed Osmond)
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