Russian Deputy PM Believes All Criteria for RUSADA Reinstatement Met

ST. PETERSBURG (Sputnik) — All the criteria for the reinstatement of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) have been fulfilled, and the Russian side has already passed assessments of Richard McLaren's report to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko said Tuesday.

In 2015, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accused Russia of multiple doping violations and declared RUSADA was not compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code. In early August, WADA published a roadmap to code compliance, with 12 criteria, including public acceptance of the McLaren report, that Russia had to meet before WADA's independent Compliance Review Committee can recommend that RUSADA be reinstated.

The issue of restoring RUSADA membership should be considered on November 16 at a meeting of the WADA Founders' Council in Seoul.

"I believe that the criteria have been fulfilled, all of our assessments of McLaren's report are in WADA and the IOC. I do not want to announce anything, but I think I'll fly there in the near future and once again I will say how we see this report" Mutko told reporters.

On Monday, Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov said that it would be very difficult for Russia to agree with WADA on the reinstatement of the status of RUSADA, as one of the conditions is the unconditional recognition of the McLaren commission's report, which is impossible due to many inconsistencies in the document.