The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Friday gave the green light to lift its ban on Russia’s drug-tainted testing authority after a recommendation from investigators.
A WADA statement said its independent Compliance Review Committee had recommended that the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) be reinstated when the agency’s executive committee meets in the Seychelles on Thursday.
The move, which paves the way for Russian athletes to make a full return to competition, came as a surprise. A day earlier, the BBC published a letter from the committee recommending that the ban remain in place.
WADA suspended the RUSADA in 2015 after declaring it to be non-compliant following revelations of a vast, Moscow-backed scheme to avoid drug testers.
A WADA report by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren accused Russian authorities of running an elaborate doping program with the full support of the Russian Ministry of Sport and the Russian secret service.
Tensions within WADA emerged earlier this year over whether Russia had done enough for the sanction to be lifted, with some officials saying it had not completed a “road map” to rehabilitation.
However, WADA’s statement on Friday said its compliance committee had recommended reinstating RUSADA after reviewing a letter from the Russian Ministry of Sport.
“This letter sufficiently acknowledged the issues identified in Russia, therefore fulfilling the first of the two outstanding criteria of RUSADA’s Roadmap to Compliance,” WADA said.
Russia had also agreed to provide access to data and samples in its Moscow laboratory to WADA via an independent expert, it added.
The apparent U-turn was slammed by US Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart, who called on the agency to make public evidence that Russia had satisfied the criteria for reinstatement.
“Frankly, it stinks to high heaven. WADA should stop the sleight of hand and release the new Compliance Review Committee recommendation, as well as any information received from Russia now showing they are compliant,” Tygart said in a statement.
Tygart also challenged RUSADA to provide details from tests carried out at its Moscow laboratory.
If the reinstatement is approved as expected, it could remove a key obstacle to lifting the suspension of Russia by the International Association of Athletics Federations.
Meanwhile, the Swiss Office of the Attorney General (OAG) yesterday said that prosecutors are investigating whether Russian agents tried to hack WADA.
Criminal proceedings were launched in March last year on suspicion of political espionage, the OAG said in a statement.
“The OAG, in cooperation with the Federal Intelligence Service was able to identify two individuals,” it said.
“The aforementioned criminal proceedings ... refer to criminal proceedings being conducted by the OAG due to a cyberattack against the World Anti-Doping Agency,” it added.
The OAG said it would give no further information on the case, which it has not revealed until now.
Swiss media said the WADA offices and International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne had both been targeted.
The Tages-Anzeiger newspaper reported that Russian agents traveled to a meeting of the IOC, while the Russian military intelligence agency was suspected of carrying out the hacking attack on WADA.
The Russian embassy in Bern described the reports as fairy-tales and an attempt to derail the reinstatement of RUSADA.
“It is noteworthy that these publications, which include adjectives like ‘suspected’ and ‘presumably,’ has appeared immediately after the World Anti-Doping Agency Compliance Review Committee issued a recommendation to lift the suspension of the Russian Anti Doping agency,” the embassy said in a statement.
“It is hard to avoid the impression that’s why the latest the latest fairy-tales about Russian hackers attacking WADA were so necessary right now,” it added.
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