Russian NOC Hopes Duma to Approve Criminal Charges for Inciting Doping

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) hopes that Russia’s lower house of parliament, the State Duma, will adopt in December a bill introducing criminal liability for inciting doping use in sports, Alexander Zhukov, the organization president, said on Saturday.

Initiated in March by Chair of the Committee on Social Policy in the Federation Council Valery Ryazanskiy, the bill stresses the need to enforce criminal and administrative charges for doping use incitement.

“We hope that the State Duma will make a decision on the criminal liability for doping [use] in December. It is consistent with a decision, taken by the World Anti-Doping Agency [during an Olympic summit],” Zhukov told journalists.

The draft bill carries a 10-to-15 year sentence without the right for reinstatement for up to 20 years if the convicted persons’ actions lead to the athlete’s death or other serious accidents.

“It is about introducing criminal responsibility for medical staff and coaches, and also for other individuals, inciting athletes to use doping. The same bill has been adopted by us [the Olympic Committee] during first reading. WADA should initiate projects, based on this principle, for each country. We hope that the State Duma will make its final decision on this bill,” he added.

Earlier in the day, the fifth International Olympic Committee (IOC) Summit underway in Lausanne called on WADA to establish a new anti-doping testing authority within the agency.

On August 30, the heads of 17 anti-doping agencies proposed a number of reforms to overhaul WADA in the wake of recent doping scandal. Anti-doping agency heads from countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan and Sweden, gathered in Copenhagen, Denmark, adopting proposals which include making WADA more independent and strengthening the sanctions imposed on doping rules violators.

The doping scandal, simmering since 2014, escalated in July when WADA presented a report accusing Russia of running a state-wide doping program and urging the IOC to consider a blanket ban on the entire Russian team. The IOC instead opted to let individual sports federations decide on the matter.

In turn, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) banned all Russian Paralympic athletes from the upcoming 2016 Summer Paralympics and 2018 Winter Games.