Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), has backed an inquiry into allegations that of a Russian-run doping scheme at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi emerged last week.

He has claimed that a decision to re-test samples from the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, leading to the threat of up to 31 athletes being banned from Rio 2016 and opening the possibility of some medallists from those Games in the Chinese, is a sign of the IOC's "zero-tolerance" towards doping.

"The EOC Executive Committee fully supports the efforts taken by the IOC to protect the clean athletes and to step up the fight against drug cheats," said a statement released following the opening day of the 37th EOC Seminar here. 

"The EOC Executive Committee also stands behind the IOC in its call for a ‘fully-fledged investigation’ by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to clear up the allegations concerning the Anti-Doping laboratory in Sochi.

The EOC Executive Committee stresses the importance to first establish the full facts before then taking decisive action.

"Should the allegations prove true, the EOC fully supports the IOC’s approach which at the same time balances collective responsibility with individual justice in order to ensure a level-playing field for all athletes at the Olympic Games Rio 2016.

A decision on what action the IOC decides to take against Russia is partiuclarly important to the EOC because they want the second edition of the 2019 European Games there.

Patrick Hickey, President of the EOC, told insidethegames here yesterday that the EOC were "standing by that decision" to try to reach a deal to hold the event in Russia but that they would be guided by the IOC. 

Bach has consistently refused to criticise Russia, despite them currently being banned by the International Association of Athletics Federations after the WADA Independent Commission found evidence of state-supported doping.