MOSCOW, September 27, Andrey Simonenko. Russian Anti-Doping Agency ( RUSADA) is awaiting a response from the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to a request that the Russian side fulfill all conditions for restoration, said RUSADA General Director Veronika Loginova.
On Friday, the WADA Executive Committee in Shanghai decided that RUSADA remains deprived of full status due to inconsistencies in state legislation with the World Anti-Doping Code, identified during a virtual audit in September 2022 and not eliminated to date. RUSADA has 21 days from the date of receipt of official notification of the new consequences and conditions of restoration to challenge WADA's decision.
“We are waiting for a response from WADA to our request that RUSADA’s position is that all conditions for restoration have been met. I think we will receive a report and WADA’s opinion in the near future, then we will work further, but I think if there were questions, we would heard. We will make a decision on whether to agree or not in the near future, we have 21 days, and then WADA will have the opportunity to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport,» Loginova said at a round table in the State Duma on the topic of compliance of the anti-doping legislation of the Russian Federation with mandatory requirements international acts in the field of anti-doping.
In December 2019, after a series of doping scandals surrounding Russian sports, the WADA Executive Committee recognized RUSADA as not complying with the anti-doping code and imposed four-year sanctions on Russian sports. On December 17, 2020, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) softened WADA's sanctions and reduced their duration to two years. Russian athletes did not have the right to compete under the national flag at major international competitions, including the Olympic Games and World Championships.
The sanctions ended in December 2022. The head of WADA, Witold Banka, said that RUSADA will not be automatically restored after December 17, partly due to the fact that the World Anti-Doping Code is not fully integrated into Russian laws. On September 22, member of the RUSADA supervisory board Oleg Barabanov, citing Dmitry Svishchev, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture and Sports, said that the second version of the bill had previously been transferred to the committee.