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Montreal, 15 September 2018 – Yesterday, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) issued a media release regarding WADA’s independent Compliance Review Committee’s (CRC’s) recommendation to the Agency’s Executive Committee (ExCo) concerning RUSADA compliance, which the ExCo will consider at its next meeting on 20 September. Today, the Agency wishes to address speculation and misinformation that is circulating due in large part to more documents having been leaked in the public domain. To clarify:
There is nothing new or concerning in the latest leaked document of an exchange between WADA and the Russian Ministry of Sport. The way in which WADA approached the Ministry was recommended by the Agency’s independent CRC at its 14 June 2018 meeting and its content is entirely in line with the RUSADA Roadmap to Compliance first established in January 2017.
WADA has been leading the drive to ensure that Russia meets the Roadmap in full. The fact is that leadership requires flexibility. The proposals made in the leaked letter are grounded in pragmatism and are nuanced interpretations of the Roadmap in order to bring matters to a conclusion and to not allow the significant progress that the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) has made over the last two years, under WADA’s supervision, to be undone.
Interested stakeholders around the world want the same thing: an effective and sustainable anti-doping system in Russia that sees clean Russian athletes resuming their place in international sport while ensuring the protection of athletes inside and outside of the country. That outcome was never going to be achieved without small degrees of movement on both sides.
It is important to note that the loudest critics of this CRC-led initiative are the very same who were most supportive of the CRC from the outset.
If the CRC's recommendation is approved by the WADA ExCo on 20 September, RUSADA will be declared compliant. However, for the avoidance of doubt, the second condition demands that WADA receives a copy of the former Moscow Laboratory’s database and the raw data via an independent expert within a strict time limit to be determined by the ExCo. If this is not met in full, then the CRC will recommend to the ExCo that RUSADA is, once again, declared non-compliant.
In terms of the process going forward, WADA’s ExCo will discuss the matter in full on 20 September; and, immediately thereafter, WADA will publish its decision. In the meantime, in the interest of full transparency, we link the following documents:
- Letter from Russian Sport Minister to WADA Director General – 12 June 2018
- Letter from the CRC Chair to WADA Director General – 19 June 2018
- Letter from WADA President and Director General to Russian Sport Minister – 22 June 2018
- Letter from Russian Sport Minister to WADA President and Director General – 13 August 2018
- Letter from Russian Sport Minister to WADA President and Director General – 13 September 2018
- Letter from CRC Chair to WADA Director General – 14 September 2018
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