MOSCOW, January 14. /TASS/. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) published on Thursday the reasoning part to its verdict as of December 17, 2020 in regard to a legal spat between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA).

The published decision of the world’s highest court in sports is 186 pages long. According to the document, the Panel of arbitrators concluded that "it will never be possible to know the number of cheating athletes or officials who may have escaped detection."

The Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland’s Lausanne upheld on December 17 WADA’s previous ruling on a number of sanctions against Russian sports. In particular, CAS upheld WADA’s decision to declare RUSADA as non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code. The court, however, ruled to cut the previously proposed four-year term of sanctions to the period of two years.

The Swiss-based court said in a statement on December 17 that the CAS Panel "unanimously determined RUSADA to be non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code (WADC) in connection with its failure to procure the delivery of the authentic LIMS data (Laboratory Information Management System) and underlying analytical data of the former Moscow Laboratory to WADA" in the period between 2012 and 2015. The Russian authorities deny accusations of manipulation.

CAS held hearings on a legal debate between RUSADA and WADA in the period between November 2 and 5, 2020. Appointed judges in the CAS case between RUSADA and WADA were Mark Williams (Australia), Luigi Fumagalli (Italy) and Hamid Gharavi (France).

According to the CAS decision on December 17, Russian athletes were deprived of their right to participate in all world championships and Olympic and Paralympic Games under the national flag of Russia for the two-year period.

The national anthem of Russia was also ruled out to be played at international sport tournaments in the course of the next two years, including at the upcoming Olympic Games in Japan this year.

The ruling of the Swiss-based court also stripped Russia of the right to bid for the organization of all international sports tournaments for the period of two years. WADA’s sanctions will be in force until December 2022.