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Doping scandal in Russian sports

Russian athletics body RusAF fails to pay $5 million fine to World Athletics

The deadline was set as July 1, otherwise Russian athletes would be denied permits for their neutral-status participation in international tournaments, according to the World Athletics Council ruling

© Valeriy Sharifulin/TASS

MOSCOW, July 2. /TASS/. The All-Russia Athletics Federation (RusAF) has failed to repay its fine of $5 million to the world’s governing body of track and field athletics, World Athletics, before the set deadline, RusAF’s spokeswoman Natalia Yukhareva told TASS on Thursday.

In March 2020, the World Athletics Council ruled to fine RusAF $5 million for an alleged attempt of the previous administration to forge official documents of high jumper Danil Lysenko. The deadline to repay the fine was set for July 1, 2020.

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ARAF president suspended over Lysenko case, AIU press service reports

"As of July 2 the imposed fine was not repaid to World Athletics," Yukhareva stated. "RusAF has no financial means to cover this fine."

In case of RusAF’s failure to pay the fine of $5 million to World Athletics before the set deadline of July 1, Russian athletes would be denied permits for their neutral-status participation in international tournaments.

The press service of the federation quoted RusAF President Yevgeny Yurchenko as saying on Tuesday that the country’s governing body of track and field athletics planned to ask World Athletics to postpone indefinitely a repayment of the $5 million fine.

The international federation, World Athletics, suspended RusAF’s membership in November 2015, following a wave of anti-doping rules violations and formed a special mission on the issue.

World Athletics, however, allowed clean athletes from Russia to participate in international tournaments under the neutral status or the Authorized Neutral Athlete (ANA) until the membership of the RusAF is reinstated. The ANA status prohibits Russian athletes from participating in all international track and field tournaments under the national flag.

World Athletics Taskforce Group, led by Norwegian expert Rune Andersen, was set up to oversee Russia’s implementation of requirements for RusAF’s membership reinstatement with World Athletics.

The suspension of Russia’s governing athletics body has been ruled to remain in force 12 times since its introduction in 2015 with the most recent decision made on September 23, 2019 before the start of the 2019 World Championships in Qatar’s Doha on September 27-October 6.

The World Athletics Council announced on November 22, 2019 its decision to suspend RusAF’s reinstatement process based on charges brought by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU). According to the World Athletics, the AIU charged RusAF on November 21, 2019 "with obstructing an investigation and provisionally suspended several senior federation officials for tampering and complicity."

The provisionally suspended senior officials at that time were then-President of RusAF Dmitry Shlyakhtin and at least four more high-ranking people from the federation. They were penalized for helping to falsify documents, which Russian high jumper Danil Lysenko presented as his excuse for skipping doping tests. Shlyakhtin and at least four officials at the issue submitted their letters of resignation on November 23.

On January 29, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) recommended World Athletics to consider an expulsion of RusAF from the list of its members in case the Russian side failed to provide evidence in the Lysenko case. The Russian side was advised to review the case once again and to come up with answers in regard to accusations on this issue.

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