RUSSIAN hoaxers used edited recordings of ex-International Paralympic Committee (IPC) president Sir Philip Craven in an attempt to trick German investigative journalist Hajo Seppelt on the day Russia was suspended from February’s Winter Olympics.

Seppelt’s reports on the country’s state-sponsored doping programme have made him a target for Russian anger and he was accompanied again by security staff at the press conference in Lausanne which announced Russia’s Olympic ban on Tuesday.

But he had already received calls that morning from somebody who sounded like Craven and who wanted to talk about Russia.