International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach made a staunch defense of his handling of the Russian doping scandal Sunday, the last day of the Pyeongchang Winter Games.

On the final day of competition, all the talk at Bach's closing press conference in Pyeongchang centered not on the games themselves, but on the IOC's decision to not lift Russia's suspension stemming from the 2014 Sochi Olympics in time for the closing ceremony.

Of the Pyeongchang Olympics, Bach said, "The IOC is very happy about the great success of these games. All what the Olympic Games and great sport are about has been in these Winter Games."

But few were interested in what Bach had to say about the record number of participating National Olympic Committees (92) or broadcasting hours (140,000) for Pyeongchang.

The questions, rather, focused on how the IOC could think about repealing Russia's suspension so soon, despite two from the Olympic Athletes from Russia team failing doping tests during these games -- individual Russians who were supposedly screened by the IOC before receiving an invite to compete.

While Bach said the ban was not lifted this time because of the positive test results of Russian curler Aleksandr Krushelnitckii and bobsledder Nadezhda Sergeeva, he added that if no further doping rule violations are reported from Pyeongchang after the closing, Russia will be automatically cleared to return.

"That's an automatic decision, so if there is no report, then the sanction is considered to be lifted," Bach said. "This is a very objective condition and if this objective condition is met, then the sanction is lifted."

Bach was absolutely impervious to any and all suggestions that the Russia case cast a shadow on these Winter Olympics. He feels there are no uncertainties about the Russians, who he thinks were "very proactive" because Krushelnitckii returned his mixed doubles bronze medal.

The World Anti-Doping Agency, nevertheless, has no plans to remove Russia from its non-compliant list. Bach repeatedly tried to pass the buck to WADA and the international sports federations, saying Russia was their concern post-Pyeongchang and that the case was all but closed as far as the IOC is concerned.

"I don't think, quite frankly, these Olympic Games have been tainted by the Russian affair because we had no Russian team here," he said. "This was a clear message."

"With regards to these two cases, I can only repeat what the implementation group and what our experts have been saying. That these are cases of negligence, that there is no indication whatsoever of systematic doping."

"We have a clear decision here by the IOC executive board so there is no unstable situation. What we have is a clear decision today and so everybody knows what the sanctions and decisions are."

Asked if the Russia saga could spill over to the next Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2020, Bach said the fight against doping will never end.

"We will always have positive cases with regards to every nation. This fight against doping will never be over," he said. "We have to be realistic (that) the day where we have won the fight against doping will not come, as long as you have human beings in competitions with each other. You will have some who will always try to cheat."

"In society, we have had laws against theft or robbery for thousands of years but there is still theft or robbery. This is unfortunate, but we cannot ignore human reality so what we can do and what we have to do is make the net as tight as possible to see what we can do in prevention."