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On Friday, at the All-Russian Clean Sports Forum in Suzdal, a round table was held to discuss the prospects for restoration full status of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA). At the same time, the executive committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) was held in Shanghai, as a result of which Russian sports again found themselves under sanctions. The correspondent summarizes the events of recent days.
Background of the conflict
As is known, the validity period of the previous package of repressive measures issued by WADA for alleged manipulations with the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory database, cut to two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), expired on December 17, 2022. However, there was no automatic restoration of the full status of RUSADA. On the contrary, WADA stated that the process will consist of three stages.
First, the organization's management had to “carefully study” how RUSADA fulfilled all the conditions for restoration set out in the CAS decision. The documents would then be submitted to WADA's independent Code Compliance Committee (CRC). And finally, this body had to present its verdict to the WADA executive committee.
At no stage of this process did WADA make official statements about its details. But the president of this organization, Witold Banka, took the floor more than once. For example, in November 2022, he stated: «Confidence in the Russian anti-doping system remains extremely low. They have a lot of work ahead to restore it. The restoration process does not end on December 17, 2022 — in fact, it will only begin on that day. In three phases of the process, compliance with the code will be carefully analyzed. We will have to check each condition of restoration. Verification means checking, and not taking someone’s word on faith.»
It is not known for certain whose word was not going to be taken on faith Banka. Probably the General Director of RUSADA, Veronica Loginova, who in Suzdal described the current situation with the organization’s activities as follows.
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“Our operational activities are not limited. The agency performs all functions, testing is carried out to the required extent. We set the task not to slow down the pace of testing, and we manage to do this, although there are problems with financing, purchasing equipment, we all know what is happening with the dollar exchange rate «We hope that we will be able to take the planned 11 thousand samples. It is important that WADA conducted an audit and checked most carefully how testing is carried out. There are no comments at the moment, in general, the audit showed that the work is carried out properly, all procedures are carried out in accordance with in accordance with the WADA code, which we are proud of.”
And then there was that very specific “word” for Banka. “We wrote to our colleagues at WADA about the full fulfillment of all the requirements for the restoration of full status specified in the CAS decisions,” Loginova said.
What is the point claims against RUSADA
So what is the reason that RUSADA remains deprived of full compliance status with the code? The head of RUSADA spoke about this back in December last year at a round table in the State Duma. Why exactly there will now become clear. «During the audit, comments were made that some points of our legislation did not comply with the anti-doping code. Our position is that RUSADA should not be responsible for legislation, federal law is not our competence. We do not agree that this is a critical discrepancy, and I do not see there is no reason to restore us. We sent this disagreement to WADA,» Loginova explained.
What exactly was the remark was explained by MGIMO professor and member of the RUSADA supervisory board Oleg Barabanov. “The federal law (“On Physical Culture and Sports”) does not stipulate 11 anti-doping violations, as in the WADA code, but 8. The federal law was based on the UNESCO anti-doping convention, which also lists 8 violations. WADA insisted that All 11 violations were spelled out in our law; it takes the position that national legislation should reflect the provisions of the anti-doping code as textually as possible,” he said.
An important point: in the CAS decision there is no requirement there is no mention of compliance of national legislation with the WADA code. And at that December round table in the State Duma, the opinion was very loudly voiced that there was no need to follow the lead of this organization, which has never been objective in relation to Russia. For example, Deputy Minister of Sports of Russia Odes Baysultanov spoke about this.
But in the end, it was decided to begin work on amending the federal law. The first has already been accepted — RUSADA is now empowered to adopt Russian anti-doping rules. But the second bill — the one where three more are added to the existing eight anti-doping rule violations — is currently still at the stage of consideration by the State Duma.
Nevertheless, WADA decided not to wait and, despite the position expressed by the General Director of RUSADA, at the Shanghai meeting of the executive committee they announced the introduction of a new package of sanctions against Russian sports. Or, to put it more simply, about the return of the old one, which was in force until December 17, 2022. There are still the same measures: Russian athletes will not be able to compete at the Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as major international tournaments under their flag, plus these competitions cannot be organized in our country. True, now, according to the recommendations of the IOC, we don’t have any of this anyway — for political reasons. But RUSADA’s non-compliance with the anti-doping code is a formal basis for them.
What will happen next
There is still no clear and unified position on what to do with all this. For example, the aforementioned member of the RUSADA supervisory board Oleg Barabanov noted on Friday that WADA’s comments are unprincipled. Whether to implement them or not is the exclusive right of the legislator, that is, the State Duma. However, he emphasized that there is no guarantee that if they are fulfilled, we will not be given new ones. A little earlier, State Duma deputy, deputy head of the United Russia faction Evgeniy Revenko said the same thing.
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“What is happening now confirms the position of our more radical colleagues, who at the very beginning of our journey said that we should not follow WADA’s lead and make any changes. Because today they have some critical remarks, tomorrow there will be others, and no one will restore RUSADA,» he noted. “The problem, as critics said, is not in non-compliance with the law, but in WADA’s biased attitude towards Russian sports. In the CAS decision, and this is the starting point, there are many different points — and all of them have been fulfilled. There there is not a word about the inconsistency of our legislation with any rules. But WADA does not restore RUSADA and makes new demands.»
“WADA’s claims are biased and discriminatory in nature, there is nitpicking over words and formulations,” Revenko continued, speaking about the essence of the “criticisms.” “I note that officials from WADA do not want to communicate with us and speak the same language. If in the claims there is no point, we come to the conclusion that if we change these words now, next time there will be comments that we need to rearrange the commas. It seems to me that it is strange to do this. I don’t know how lawyers will react to this, but I would suggest that RUSADA file a lawsuit in CAS against WADA with a demand to restore the organization's rights. Otherwise, we will go in a vicious circle.»
The fact that applying to CAS is essentially the only thing left to do was confirmed by Alexander Orlov, Deputy Head of the Department of Sports Law at Moscow State University of Law, and Candidate of Legal Sciences, who was present at the round table in Suzdal.
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“If now there are sanctions on RUSADA again, we will again lose the flag and anthem. It is extremely important for us to go to court, even if WADA does not make any decisions, because we must have a mechanism for restoring the violated right. We understand that we are right here, we have a good legal position. If we talk about the chances in CAS, then sometimes they say — what kind of justice is there, there are only British and Americans. But the same decision of CAS at the Beijing Olympics regarding Valieva is great — they scraped out all the details and allowed the girl to compete. Now WADA’s claims are far-fetched; nowhere is it written that we have to change anything. And if now the CAS would make at least some negative decision on this case, then I do not know the legal norm on which it could be based.”
Finally, to summarize, it remains to be stated: the fact that the Court of Arbitration for Sport is really the only way out for RUSADA is said, paradoxically, by WADA itself. Namely, declaring the following through the mouth of its President Witold Banka (quote from November 2022): “We will continue to support the recommendations of the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee in order to prevent Russia from participating in the international sports movement.”
This political declaration is spelled out in the same document on the three stages of the restoration of RUSADA and perfectly explains everything that WADA is doing. Namely, by endlessly delaying the process with its chicanery, this organization is doing its best to lay the groundwork for the illegal sports blockade of our country by the IOC and IPC.
The very same organizations whose politicization and degradation have been repeatedly talked about by the Russian leadership. So – judgment is coming. And in parallel, everything that has been discussed many times: the development of domestic Russian competitions, the search for new formats, the organization of major tournaments with the participation of all those who are ready to shake hands with Russian athletes, and these are the overwhelming majority. And as a result, the emergence of an alternative that will clearly demonstrate the futility of attempts to erase our country from the sports map of the world to those who are trying to do this.