MOSCOW, February 22. /TASS/. WADA’s (the World Anti-Doping Agency) recently reported changes in the work of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) provide for a hop that the Russian agency could be reinstated in its rights by the end of the year, Russian Deputy Sports Minister Andrey Fyodorov said on Wednesday.
Russia’s lower house of the parliament, the State Duma, passed in its first reading earlier in the day a draft law that empowers RUSADA with the authority of establishing the all-Russia anti-doping regulations. Such authority is currently exercised by the Russian Sports Ministry.
"The bill at the issue had been drafted in line with instructions from the Russian prime minister with the objective of fighting doping abuse in sports, its synchronization with the World Anti-Doping Code, which, under the International Convention against Doping in Sport, is at the core of the anti-doping fight on the whole," Fyodorov said.
WADA President Witold Banka stated in November 2022, speaking at a session of the WADA Foundation Board, that RUSADA would not be granted compliance status with the global anti-doping body after independent auditors voiced a number of concerns in September regarding the Russian agency’s activities.
They remarked in particular that the Russian federal law ‘On Physical Culture and Sport’ had not been amended to comply with the new WADA Code.
From September 6 to 9, 2022, WADA inspectors carried out a virtual audit of RUSADA’s work, which is one of WADA’s reinstatement requirements for the Russian anti-doping body.
Addressing a State Duma session, RUSADA Director General Veronika Loginova stated that the national anti-doping body could turn to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in case WADA refused to reinstate RUSADA's international rights.
WADA-RUSADA case
On December 9, 2019, the WADA Executive Committee (ExCo) approved the recommendations of its Compliance Review Committee (CRC) to revoke the compliance status of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency and to strip Russia of the right to participate in major international sports tournaments, including the Olympics, Paralympics and world championships, for a period of four years.
On December 17, 2020, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland’s Lausanne partially upheld WADA’s previous ruling on a number of sanctions against Russian sports.
Following the CAS decision, Russian athletes were deprived of their right to participate in all World Championships, Olympic and Paralympic Games under the national flag of Russia and to the tune of the national anthem for two years.
The ruling of the Swiss-based court also stripped Russia of the right to bid for organizing any international sports tournaments for a period of two years. WADA’s sanctions will be in force until December 2022.