EDDIE PELLS and JAMES ELLINGWORTH
AP Sports Writers
KATOWICE, Poland (AP) — For years, Russian leaders portrayed pursuit of the doping scandal that has paralyzed the country's Olympic aspirations as a mission driven by political interests in the West. On Thursday, fissures erupted between their own countrymen, ratcheting up the tension in advance of a decision that could determine the country's fate for next summer's Tokyo Games.
The internecine nature of the Russian doping saga spilled into full view when the country's sports minister, returning to Moscow from an anti-doping conference in Poland, said there had been no manipulation of crucial doping data handed to the World Anti-Doping Agency earlier this year.
That brought this response from the leader of the newly reconfigured Ru
