Putin says Russia is fully complying with WADA anti-doping requirement

Vladimir Putin says Russia wants to leave its doping “shortcomings” in the past, even as it faces questions regarding data tampering. The Russian president tells a televised sports conference that his country is complying with the World Anti-Doping Agency “to the fullest extent.” WADA has said data handed over by Russia in January shows signs of selective editing and asked the country’s sports ministry to explain. Putin says “our country, our athletes, are first of all interested in leaving in the past all shortcomings linked to anti-doping issues.” He also calls for Russian athletes to compete “without any limitations.” Russians competed as neutral athletes at last year’s Pyeongchang Games when their national Olympic committee was suspended for doping. It has since been reinstated. 

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Russia sends formal response to World Anti-Doping Agency

Russia has sent a formal response to the World Anti-Doping Agency after signs of tampering were found in data it handed over regarding past performance-enhancing drug cases. Russia had until Wednesday to explain to the World Anti-Doping Agency why data it handed over appears to have been doctored, with some key evidence missing or altered. Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov said the response addressed 31 questions from WADA and was compiled with the help of “independent Russian experts in the field of information technology.”

“We are confident that we’ve met all the requirements,” Kolobkov said. “We’re ready to continue cooperating, to put this situation behind us quickly and do everything so that there are no more questions for the Russian side.”

Kolobkov didn’t say how Russia’s response explained the apparent tampering. Talks are planned with “experts and interested parties” before the end of the month ahead of a WADA meeting in November, he said. WADA confirmed receiving the response and said it would analyze the claims “as quickly as practicable.” If WADA rules there’s been yet another Russian doping cover-up — of data which was supposedly secure in the Russian state’s custody — new rules could mean tougher sanctions than ever before.

“What decision will WADA make? It will be strict. This is an issue of recidivism, a repeat, and it’s about using the same methods again,” Yuri Ganus, CEO of the Russian anti-doping agency, told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “It’s actually a big problem, and obviously it’s to be expected. If the (Russian) sports authorities can’t find some answers, and I struggle to imagine what those answers could be, I can envision that the decision will be fairly strict.”

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'Restrictions on athletes'

The data handover in January in a sealed-off section of the Moscow lab was meant to clear up years of doping cases. Russia’s anti-doping agency, known as RUSADA, was reinstated in return, against protests from some Western athletes. The head of World Athletics’ taskforce for Russia, Rune Andersen, has said the data doesn’t match an earlier copy WADA obtained from a whistleblower. Andersen wrote last month that the data shows signs that particular athletes’ test results were selectively edited, rather than the random changes which could result from a corrupted file. Tampering would be a breach of trust and could taint the entire data archive so that it’s hard to prosecute cases even for athletes whose files appear untouched. If WADA decides foul play was involved, its first step will likely be to re-suspend RUSADA, which the rules require as a pretext to further sanctions.

“There will be significant restrictions on athletes, restrictions on the whole sports jurisdiction, on hosting competitions on Russian territory, and the role of officials in sports administration,” Ganus said. “The worst thing is that it’s now in its fifth year and it will continue for quite some time.”

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