MOSCOW, January 21. /TASS/. The Russian Curling Federation (RCF) has sent an official notification to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on its intention to participate as a third party in court hearings between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), RCF President Dmitry Svishchev told TASS on Tuesday.
"Yes, we have already submitted the documents, but only on behalf of the federation," Svishchev said in an interview with TASS. "Unfortunately, our athletes did not have the time [to sign the document] as they are all either competing at tournaments or attending training camps."
"Boys and girls are morally ready to speak [at the hearings], but unfortunately the the timeframe was very limited," he continued. "We have met with the team and the athletes are set for defending their rights."
"We have been always telling everyone, including WADA, that athletes guilty of doping abuse must be definitely suspended, but it should not go in regard to clean athletes, federations and fans as they have nothing to do with it," Svishchev stated.
"The Russian anti-doping legislation is one of the toughest in the world today," he said. "Problems have been existing; they exist now and will be always taking place, just like in the rest of the world."
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 (RUSADA) 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.
The WADA ExCo also ruled that Russia must not host, or bid for or be granted the right to host any major international sports tournament in this four-year period. Russian state officials, as well as the officials of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC), were banned from attending all major international sports tournaments for this four-year period.
The RUSADA Supervisory Board recommended on December 19 the agency’s Founders Council to disagree with WADA’s sanctions against Russian sports and to take this case to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Switzerland’s Lausanne. On December 27, RUSADA sent an official notification of its disagreement to WADA and the global anti-doping body have turned this case over to the Swiss-based court.