Russia prevents World Anti-Doping Agency from obtaining doping data
On December 17th, specialists of the World Anti-Doping Agency arrived in Moscow to extract data from the doping tests of Russian athletes for the period from 2011 to 2015 but they were not able to obtain these samples. According to Interfax, citing WADA’s press release, Moscow has demanded that the sampling equipment be certified in Russia.
According to the Russian Anti-Doping Agency’s General Director Yuriy Ganus, failure to give WADA experts access to the doping samples, indicates that the first condition for the restoration of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) is not fulfilled. "It's nonsense. We should look for opportunities to provide access, not reasons to prevent it,” he said in a conversation with Interfax.
Ganus hopes that before the New Year, Russia will nevertheless allow specialists to withdraw samples. "The consequences of the failure to meet the first condition can be disastrous, as all our [Russian] athletes will lose the opportunity to take part in international competitions, and those international competitions that were to be held in our country can be transferred to other countries," explained the director.
Meanwhile, Russian Minister of Sports Pavel Kolobkov stated earlier that all the conditions for the restoration of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency in WADA will soon be fulfilled as only "the technical issues" remain. “WADA experts were satisfied with this visit,” he argued.