MOSCOW, December 9. /TASS/. It is too early to speak about sanctions against Russian sports, Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov told a news conference on Monday.
Earlier in the day, the Executive Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) voted to strip the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) of its compliance status and pause Russia’s right to participate in major sports events, including Olympic Games and championships (clean Russian athletes will be able to participate in competitions in the neutral status), and also to host or bid for hosting world championships. RUSADA has 21 days to protest WADA’s decision in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
"The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) has 21 days to reply if it agrees or not. If it disagrees, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) will soon file a lawsuit with the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which will scrutinize all evidence from scratch. This will be an objective process. All testimonies will be heard. It is too early to speak about sanctions," Kolobkov said.
Anti-doping work in Russia
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has no questions about anti-doping work in Russia, the sports minister stated.
"There are no questions about our anti-doping work. About 9,000 samples are taken annually, so WADA has no questions regarding our work with athletes. Perhaps additional testing will be made. Everyone is tested," said Kolobkov.
He added that the number of positive samples is comparable to their number in others countries.
Russia has done its utmost in cooperation with experts of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in addressing the problem of doping in Russian sports, Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov told journalists.
"Everything possible was done in order to address this issue. Also, all of WADA’s critical requirements that kept growing within the framework of the road map were complied with, although there followed new decisions and ever new documents were demanded. We did everything in our powers, everything necessary that depended on us to resolve the controversy to everybody’s benefit, including our athletes," Kolobkov said.
In September, the WADA Executive Committee initiated a probe into the Russian Anti-Doping Agency’s non-compliance with the international code, because changes had been identified in the 2012-2015 database of the Moscow laboratory. Later, WADA’s Compliance Review Committee advised the Executive Committee to apply a number of sanctions against Russian sports.
In November, WADA's Compliance Review Committee came to the conclusion, following an investigation, that Russia had manipulated data from the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory to cover anti-doping violations.
On Monday, the WADA Executive Committee (ExCo) approved recommendations of its Compliance Review Committee (CRC) to annul the compliance status of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) as well as to strip Russia of the right to participate in major international sports tournaments, including the Olympics and World Championships, for the period of four years.