SUZDAL (Vladimir region), September 22, Andrey Simonenko. An international public organization, such as the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), cannot dictate what laws should apply in Russia, said Evgeniy Revenko, deputy head of the United Russia faction in the State Duma of the Russian Federation, during the All-Russian Clean Sports Forum.
Earlier, WADA President Witold Banka said that the anti-doping code has not been implemented into Russian laws and this is an obstacle to the automatic restoration of the full status of RUSADA after December 17, 2022, the date of expiration of sanctions against Russian sports. The head of RUSADA, Veronika Loginova, said that WADA auditors made a “critical comment” to the agency, which should have been corrected by January 7. According to Loginova, RUSADA sent a letter of disagreement with this conclusion to WADA, WADA management supported the auditors, and this dispute should be considered by an independent compliance committee.
«»We, as the main legislative body of the country, have worked, are working and will continue to work with RUSADA and other bodies, the Russian Ministry of Sports, to improve anti-doping legislation. We are all for clean sport. But we believe that an international public organization cannot and should not dictate, what national laws and rules apply in our country,” Revenko said at the round table “On the status of RUSADA from the first person.”
“I defended the bill to amend the law on physical culture and sports, which expanded the rights of RUSADA. We successfully passed the law and expanded the rights of RUSADA. If in the first reading there were still some questions and critical comments, then by the third reading there were none left. What is happening now confirms the position of our more radically minded colleagues, who at the very beginning of our journey said that we should not follow WADA’s lead and introduce anything, because, as critics said, the problem is not non-compliance with legislation, but the problem is biased «WADA's attitude towards Russian sports. And that the task is not to restore RUSADA for as long as possible. We have made the necessary changes to our legislation and expanded the rights of RUSADA, but RUSADA has not been restored,» he added.
The official also noted that RUSADA fulfilled all the requirements of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), among which there was no talk of changing national legislation.
“»I mean that WADA's claims are biased and discriminatory in nature. There is nitpicking and clinging to words and formulations. Our and foreign legislation often have identical understandings of anti-doping terms, and by the way, our measures are sometimes even tougher» , concluded Revenko.
According to Revenko, the head of WADA, Witold Banka, deals not with issues of jurisprudence and ethics, but with politics.
“Not restoring is not in the area of jurisprudence and ethics, it is in the area of politics, which is what Banka is doing «, Revenko told reporters.
The sanctions ended in December 2022. Banka stated that RUSADA will not be automatically restored to WADA compliance status after December 17 because RUSADA does not comply with the organization's code, including due to the fact that the World Anti-Doping Code is not fully integrated into Russian laws.