PARIS, October 31. /TASS/. Russian experts are ready to provide additional explanations to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) as soon as possible for previously reported inconsistencies in the database of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov told TASS on Thursday.
The world’s governing anti-doping body published on early Tuesday "further responses from the Russian authorities to a list of detailed and technical questions, including follow-up questions, raised by WADA’s Intelligence and Investigations Department (I&I) and the independent forensic experts concerning the data that WADA I&I retrieved from the Moscow Laboratory in January 2019."
- Russian figure skater Koshevaya slapped with 2-year ban over doping abuse
- Two Russian weightlifters slapped with 4-year bans for violating anti-doping rules
- Russian runner Oleg Ilyin slapped with 4-year ban over anti-doping rules violations
- Russian rugby player Gritsenko slapped with 2-year ban over anti-doping violations
- Russian runner Nurgaliyev slapped with 2-year suspension over positive doping test
- Russian sprinter Vruchinsky slapped with four-year suspension over doping abuse
- Russian rower Kornilov slapped with 2-year suspension for anti-doping rules’ violations
- Russian boxer Tamir Galanov slapped with two-year suspension over doping abuse
- Russian skiers Legkov, Belov slapped with life bans, stripped of 2014 Olympic results
- Russian female weightlifter Vorobyova slapped with 8-year ban over doping abuse
- Russia’s long jumper Kucherenko slapped with 2-year ban over doping abuse
Experts from Russia and WADA had been initially scheduled to discuss this issue on October 23, however, this meeting was postponed indefinitely.
"It is still early to make statements regarding this issue," Kolobkov said in an interview with TASS. "False and unverified information on this issue repeatedly appeared in the media."
"We will definitely inform media outlets about the date of this meeting, but it is still early to make predictions at the moment," the Russian sports minister stated.
"We have taken the first step and it was to provide all the required information," Kolobkov said. "WADA stated in its press release that its investigative department is already studying this information. It was a huge database, which contained extra responses to questions of experts."
"I am sure that if other commentaries or explanations are needed, Russian experts will provide them as soon as possible," Kolobkov added.
WADA announced on September 23 that it had initiated a probe into the compliance status of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency with the Code of the world’s governing anti-doping body based on the inconsistencies reportedly discovered in the data from the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory.
Chair of the WADA Compliance Review Committee Jonathan Taylor told TASS less than two weeks ago that a decision on the expediency of imposing sanctions on the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) may be made at an extraordinary session of the WADA Executive Committee, which will take place after November 7 under the organization’s new president.
Specialists from WADA were granted access to the database of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory in January this year and copied 24 terabytes of information on Russian athletes’ doping samples collected between 2012 and 2015. WADA experts finished their work to retrieve doping samples from the Moscow Lab on April 30 having collected 2,262 doping samples in 4,524 containers (Samples A and B).
The WADA Executive Committee reinstated the compliance status of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) on September 20, 2018 on condition that before December 31, 2018 WADA experts would be granted access to doping samples at the Moscow Anti-Doping Lab, which was sealed off in connection with a federal investigation.