Russian compliance situation with WADA
On January 2, 2019, the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES), together with national anti-doping organizations from Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Singapore, Sweden, and the USA, issued a joint statement calling the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to declare Russia non-compliant as the country that had not met one of the two post-reinstatement conditions by its deadline, i.e. the end of the previous year.
On January 1, 2019, WADA announced through its website that Russia’s compliance status would be reviewed due to the fact that the Russian authorities had failed to grant access to the Information Management System data as well as the information from the former Moscow Laboratory of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), as outlined in a compromise initiated by WADA which came into effect as a result of the Executive Committee voting on September 20, 2018. According to the established procedure, the Executive Committee will have to consider new recommendations of the Compliance Review Committee (CRC) whose meeting is scheduled for January 14-15. Meanwhile, in the same media release, WADA continues to strongly support effective and robust cooperation with RUSADA if it is ready to provide agency’s officials with the requested data.
On the contrary, the above-mentioned 16 national anti-doping organizations, including Canada’s, vocalize their dissatisfaction that WADA demonstrated its willingness to prolong Russia’s timeline till the Compliance Review Committee meeting in mid-January. As stated in the document, WADA is now urged “to acknowledge the gravity of this missed deadline and call for an immediate review and recommendation from the CRC.” And as it is phrased by Paul Melia, President and CEO of the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport, “it is now time for WADA to get on with its role as the global regulator – to enforce Code compliance with Russia and abandon its unsuccessful diplomatic approach.”
