KISLOVODSK, November 19./TASS/. Active preparations are underway for the visit of a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) delegation to the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov told TASS on Monday.
The WADA delegation will visit Moscow on November 28. Proving WADA experts before the yearend with access to doping samples data of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, sealed off due to a federal investigation, is a key condition for reinstating the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA). The delegation will include three WADA experts, and all in all five specialists will work in the laboratory.
"How are preparations for a WADA visit to the Moscow lab proceed? They continue actively, and we expect WADA experts in Moscow on November 28," Kolobkov said.
In case of failing to comply with the WADA terms, the Russian Anti-Doping Agency will be once again declared non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code, which it won back on September 20.
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.
RUSADA was declared non-compliant with the WADA Code in November 2015 after a doping scandal in Russia’s track and field athletics. New doping revelations were later made based on claims of former head of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory Grigory Rodchenkov, who moved to the United States. Amid the continuing doping scandals, the decision on reinstating the organization has been postponed many times.
Over the past years, RUSADA has undergone significant changes. Its top management resigned and the organization received full independence from the Russian Sports Ministry, and independent experts from WADA and the UK Anti-Doping Agency provided assistance in its work.
The World Anti-Doping Agency will once declare the Russian Anti-Doping Agency non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code if it is not provided access to the Moscow laboratory’s data before the year ends.