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WADA warns of halting doping tests in Russia unless it gets access to Moscow lab — source

All suspicious doping samples are due to be reanalyzed before June 30, 2019

MOSCOW, November 14. /TASS/. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will rule out the possibility for athletes to undergo doping control tests in Russia, unless it is granted access within its designated period to data of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, a source in the World Anti-Doping Agency told TASS on Wednesday.

The WADA Executive Committee announced on September 20 that the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) was again in compliance with the Code of the global agency and its membership was reinstated.

The world’s anti-doping body, however, came up with two more conditions for the Russian anti-doping agency. One of them requests that WADA gets access to the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory by the yearend and the other is that all suspicious doping samples are reanalyzed before June 30, 2019.

In case of its failure to meet these requirements, the Russian Anti-Doping Agency will be immediately stripped of its compliance status while Russian athletes may be barred from participating in international competitions.

"WADA is concerned over the absence of real steps from Russia in granting access to the data of the Moscow laboratory. In case of failure to meet the first critical requirement on time, no doping tests will be conducted on the territory of Russia. RUSADA will be stripped of this right after it loses the compliance status. Foreign companies will also be unable to carry out doping tests in Russia," the source said.

The agenda of the coming sessions of the WADA Executive Committee and Foundation Board includes the issue of Russia’s compliance with its commitments for granting access to WADA experts by December 31 to the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory shut down by Russia’s Investigative Committee.