WADA’s Compliance Review Committee Recommends Strong Penalties for Russia

Jason AlbertNovember 25, 2019

In a just published press release, WADA has released its Compliance Review Committee’s (CRC) recommended consequences for RUSADA.

On December 9, WADA’s Executive committee will decide upon’s RUSADA’s status as a compliant entity. Last week, the Compliance Review Committee suggested RUSADA again be declared non-compliant.

Due to a leak of specific aspects of the Compliance Review Committee’s recommendations and sanctions, WADA has decided to publish the sanctions likely to be handed down on December 9.

RUSADA was to hand over data from its Moscow Lab and its Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) database.

“The Moscow data are neither complete nor fully authentic,” states the CRC document. It claims hundreds of adverse analytical findings have been removed from the database.

It asserts the LIMS data was doctored to include “planted fabricated evidence.”

To summarize, it appears WADA will ban Russia from the Olympics/Paralympics, and major championships for the next four years. Russia will be unable to host any “Major Event”.

Russian athletes will not be able to compete under the Russian flag at these designated events over the four year period. Athletes must prove their innocence as it relates to doping and RUSADA’s non-compliance in order to compete.

 

Below are the detailed CRC’s recommended consequences for Russia.

“CRC recommendation in relation to consequences (abridged)

The CRC has therefore recommended that WADA send a formal notice to RUSADA, asserting non-compliance with the requirement to provide an authentic copy of the Moscow data, and proposing the following consequences, to come into effect on the date on which the decision that RUSADA is non-compliant becomes final and to remain in effect until the fourth anniversary of that date (‘the Four Year Period’):

  • Russian Government officials/representatives may not be appointed to sit and may not sit as members of the boards or committees or any other bodies of any Code Signatory (or its members) or association of Signatories.
  • Russian Government officials/representatives may not participate in or attend any of the following events held in the Four Year Period: (a) the Youth Olympic Games (summer and winter); (b) the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games (summer and winter); (c) any other event organized by a Major Event Organisation; and (d) any World Championships organized or sanctioned by any Signatory (together, the Major Events).
  • Russia may not host in the Four Year Period, or bid for or be granted in the Four Year Period, the right to host (whether during or after the Four Year Period) any editions of the Major Events.
  • Where the right to host a Major Event in the Four Year Period has already been awarded to Russia, the Signatory must withdraw that right and re-assign the event to another country, unless it is legally or practically impossible to do so. In addition, Russia may not bid for the right to host the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, irrespective of whether the bidding takes place during or after the Four Year Period.
  • Russia’s flag may not be flown at any Major Event staged in the Four Year Period.
  • Neither the President, the Secretary-General, the CEO, nor any member of the Executive Board/Governing Board of either the Russian Olympic Committee or the Russian Paralympic Committee may participate in or attend any Major Event staged in the Four Year Period.
  • Russian athletes and their support personnel may only participate in Major Events staged in the Four Year Period where they are able to demonstrate that they are not implicated in any way by the non-compliance (i.e., they are not mentioned in incriminating circumstances in the McLaren reports, there are no positive findings reported for them in the database, and no data relating to their samples has been manipulated), in accordance with strict conditions to be defined by WADA (or the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), if it sees fit), pursuant to the mechanism foreseen in ISCCS Article 11.2.6. In this circumstance, they may not represent the Russian Federation.
  • Given the aggravating factors that are present in this case, RUSADA must pay all WADA’s costs on this file incurred since January 2019 and, in addition, a fine to WADA of 10% of its 2019 income or USD 100,000 (whichever is lower). This is the maximum fine available under the rules.” Baltic and Lithuania tours

 

Jason Albert

Jason lives in Bend, Ore., and can often be seen chasing his two boys around town. He’s a self-proclaimed audio geek. That all started back in the early 1990s when he convinced a naive public radio editor he should report a story from Alaska’s, Ruth Gorge. Now, Jason’s common companion is his field-recording gear.

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