Rio 2016: Vladimir Putin says Olympics 'less of a spectacle' without Russians

Russian President Vladimir Putin says medals won at Rio 2016 will be devalued by the banning of Russian competitors.

There have been 108 Russians banned from next month's Olympics so far, including 67 out of 68 from the athletics team.

Putin said there was a "deliberate campaign targeting our athletes".

"The other sportsmen understand that the quality of their medals will be different," he told the Russian Olympic team at the Kremlin in Moscow.

Putin, who said the Games would be "less of a spectacle" as a result of the bans, said the "campaign" he alleged "was characterised by so-called double standards and opted for the idea of collective responsibility, which is not compatible with sport, justice in general, or the basic norms of law".

Russia's fencing, volleyball and triathlon squads are the latest teams to have been cleared to compete at the Rio Games, which begin on 5 August.

Governing bodies are making rulings on whether Russian athletes can take part following the damning World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) report into state-sponsored doping in the country.

There are 16 Russian fencers due to compete in Brazil and six triathletes.

The International Volleyball Federation has cleared the Russian volleyball and beach volleyball teams for Rio, with 30 players across the respective squads.

Fencing's governing body the FIE said it had re-examined the results from 197 drug tests taken by Russian fencers between 2014 and 2016 and all came back negative.

An International Triathlon Union (ITU) statement said: "None of the six Russian triathletes (three men, three women) that have qualified for 2016 Olympics are included in the McLaren report, nor have any of them served suspensions or bans for failed doping tests.

"Additionally, they have all been tested outside of Russia. Therefore, ITU will recommend to the IOC that these six athletes be permitted to compete in Rio next month."

The International Olympic Committee has said individual federations should decide if Russians in their respective sports can compete following Wada's report.

Some international federations have banned Russians from competing altogether, some have issued a partial ban, while others have cleared all Russians to take part.

All Russian competitors from equestrian, shooting, judo, tennis and archery have been given permission to compete.

Athletics' governing body, the IAAF, opted to ban Russian track and field athletes unless they can satisfy strict doping criteria. So far, only one athlete has been able to do that.

Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko sent a letter on Monday to IAAF president Lord Coe, asking him to reverse the ban, but said on Wednesday that his request had been refused.