RUSSIA’S deputy prime minister Vitaly Mutko accused Western media of “distorting reality” and “trampling” over his nation in at a press conference yesterday ahead of the 2018 football World Cup draw in Moscow.

The chairman of the World Cup organising committee said he did not want to speculate about Tuesday’s International Olympic Committee (IOC) decision on Russian involvement at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea.

The IOC is set to announce whether Russia will be sanctioned for running a state-sponsored doping programme between 2011 and 2015, with recent revelations suggesting Russians will only be allowed to compete in Pyeongchang as neutral athletes.