Live Updates: WADA Bans Russia From Competing in International Sporting Events for Four Years

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) is likely to uphold the decision of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to curtail Russia's participation in international sports for four years, Jonathan Taylor, the chair of WADA’s Compliance Review Committee (CRC), said on Monday.

"Do I expect the decision of CAS to be different from the decision of the WADA Executive Committee today? No, I don’t," Taylor was quoted as saying by the InsideTheGames sports news outlet.

He opined that even if the CAS proceedings take time and postpone sanctions against Russia, Moscow will be sure to miss at least one of the forthcoming two Olympic Games - in Tokyo in 2020 or in Paris in 2024.

"It will be up to the Russians to decide which they want to have covered - Tokyo or Paris," he added.

“Of course, it is a very unpleasant situation when the principle of collective responsibility is applied to Russia, everything is mixed up, the athletes, the state, RUSADA and laboratories. All these databases, to which the athletes have no relation whatsoever, especially for the previous years, when baseball was also dropped out of the programme of the Olympic Games”, President of the Russian Baseball Federation Dmitry Kiselev stated.

He added that the Russian Baseball Federation is working hard to comply with the anti-doping rules.
“We understand the full responsibility for our relatively young baseball sport in Russia and should be absolutely clean in this regard”, he added.

Spokesperson of the National Badminton Federation of Russia Alexander Bagdatyev has said in a statement that they did not issue a release on the WADA ban as the matter doesn't quite concern them.

"The issues of our international politics that lie in the area of the federation are a question of relations with the European Badminton Confederation or the BWF (Badminton World Federation). And here we have an absolutely well-built relationship. This year we are going to have the World Junior Championship under-19 in Kazan, and there are wonderful reviews about it and they call us their partners quite rightly", he added.

“In my opinion, the WADA decision is unfair. The question is legally doubtful. This is the so-called Saxon law, which is applied in resolving the issue. In general, to put it mildly, they do not quite correspond to their Saxon law", Assistant to the President of the Russian Baseball Federation Alexander Kaverin stated, adding that the decision was made by conviction, not by legal canons.

"I believe the prospects are quite good, there is argumentation. I believe that it is right to consider the case in CAS, where there are three arbitrators, and where the WADA decision is not regarded on the basis of the recommendation of the compliance committee representing the same WADA. I think that WADA has used all the possibilities [to investigate], but now there is another procedure", Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov told reporters.

"How much I don't have the final number, but I can tell you we have spent a few million [of US dollars] in this investigation ... I would say less than 5 million ... but the bill is going to continue going up ... because we don't think it is for us to pay for work that's being done when we have identified that people have tried to cheat on us", WADA Director General Olivier Niggli said.

"FIFA has taken note of the decision taken by WADA Executive Committee today. FIFA is in contact with WADA and ASOIF to clarify the extent of the decision in regards to football", the spokesperson said.

GORKI (outside Moscow), (Sputnik) - "It is impossible to ignore WADA’s decision on our athletes. I will not conduct a detailed analysis at this point; not so long ago, speaking in an interview, I said that in this case it’s obvious that on the Russian side – I mean in our sports community, there are still significant problems with doping, it cannot be denied", Medvedev said at a meeting with deputy prime ministers.

"The objective of our task was to get the raw data because this is primary evidence for all the cases”, Gunter Younger, the director of intelligence and investigations for WADA said.

"When we went there and extracted the data, we realised that the raw data was deleted so we could not extract the data that we needed for our cases. So when we talk about authentic data, we still don’t know where they are, whether they have still some[thing] from the raw data. But if they have raw data, they should hand over them, and then we can check", he added.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), Travis Tygart, has qualified the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)'s decision to ban Russian athletes from participating in the Olympics for four year as a "devastating blow to clean athletes" and the "rule of law".

"To allow Russia to escape a complete ban is yet another devastating blow to clean athletes, the integrity of sport and the rule of law. And, in turn, the reaction by all those who value sport should be nothing short of a revolt against this broken system to force reform", Tygart said in a statement on Monday.

"There is no disputing that Russia has committed the most intentional, deep and broad level of corruption on the entire sports world that has put money over morals, abuse over health and corruption over the Olympic values and all athlete’s dreams. Now clean athletes, sports fans and sponsors are having to suffer through another horrendous Groundhog Day of Russian corruption and domination”, he added.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) Compliance Review Committee (CRC) now has names of all suspicious athletes in the Moscow Laboratory database, which was said to be manipulated before being handed over to the agency's investigators in January 2019, Jonathan Taylor, the WADA CRC chair, said on Monday.

"WADA now has the names of all suspicious athletes in the LIMS [Laboratory Information Management System] database, and thanks to the painstakingly forensic nature of the investigation, this includes the athletes whose data was manipulated or even deleted, including the 145 athletes within WADA's target group of most suspicious athletes but also others beyond that target group", Taylor said, as quoted in the agency's press release.

The official added that while he understands the WADA Athletes Committee's calls for a blanket ban on all Russian athletes, the CRC unanimously agreed that "those who could prove their innocence should not be punished" noting that he was pleased that the WADA Executive Committee had agreed with this.

"While being tough on the authorities, this recommendation avoids punishing the innocent, and instead stands up for the rights of clean athletes everywhere. If an athlete from Russia can prove that they were not involved in the institutionalized doping program, that their data was not part of the manipulation, that they were subject to adequate testing prior to the event in question, and that they fulfil all other strict conditions to be determined, they will be allowed to compete", Taylor said.

Taylor added that there is a possibility that the WADA Olympic ban on Russia will not cover the 2020 Tokyo Olympics if the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) does not deliver a ruling on Russia's possible appeal before the sporting event, but then the ban will cover the Games in Paris in 2024 instead.

The World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) Compliance Review Committee (CRC) has names of all 145 Russian athletes, whose doping data is said to be either doctored or removed in the Moscow Laboratory database, and will keep these sportsmen out of the upcoming Olympic Games.

The World Anti-Doping Agency also assumes that one-third of the 145 "suspicious" Russian athletes, whose data is said to have been either doctored or removed in the Moscow Laboratory database, are still competing, according to Gunter Younger, the director of intelligence and investigations for the organisation.

"Firstly, we all need to make some conclusions [from the WADA situation], especially those who are making decisions, on how to react. Secondly, we must figure out where to go from here", the deputy head said, adding that the time for making mistakes has passed.

She added that the monitoring council of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) will meet on 19 December to discuss the World Anti-Doping Agency's decision to ban Russia from hosting and competing in major international sporting events for four years.

"The monitoring council will meet on 19 December. The meeting was already planned and is not an emergency one. We will discuss WADA's decision", Pakhnotskaya said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Executive Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has accepted a recommendation not to impose monitoring or supervision of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency's (RUSADA) activities during the four-year period of the ban, WADA said in a press release Monday.

"The ExCo accepted the recommendation not to impose any special monitoring or supervision or takeover of RUSADA's anti-doping activities in the Four-Year Period", WADA said. "However, one of the conditions of reinstatement will be that WADA remains satisfied throughout the Four-Year Period that RUSADA’s independence is being respected and there is no improper outside interference with its operations”, it said.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - "As I see it, it is quite difficult to reverse the situation with the [UEFA] Euro, as well as with the Universiade in Yekaterinburg, I believe", Svetlana Zhurova told reporters. "As far as I know, the country has already submitted all payments, and all agreements have been signed juridically", she added.

She went on to say that the decision of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) Executive Committee to ban Russia from holding major international sporting events does not apply to the 2020 UEFA European Football Championship (UEFA Euro 2020).

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - "For too long, Russian doping has detracted from clean sport. The blatant breach by the Russian authorities of RUSADA's reinstatement conditions, approved by the ExCo in September 2018, demanded a robust response. That is exactly what has been delivered today. Russia was afforded every opportunity to get its house in order and re-join the global anti-doping community for the good of its athletes and of the integrity of sport, but it chose instead to continue in its stance of deception and denial", Craig Reedie, the president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), said as quoted in the agency's press release.

"This is a rather strong blow to Russian sports. In my opinion, a tough reaction is needed from the authorities of our country, and above all from the president, since it is in his power to put things in order in this area in Russia", Deputy Speaker of the State Duma Igor Lebedev said Monday.

Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee Deputy Chairman Andrey Klimov stated that the Russian upper house did not think the anti-doping situation in Russia was worse than in other countries.

“I don’t think that something more terrible is happening in our country's anti-doping policy than in other countries, that there are grounds for such stringent decisions by WADA. But we need to deal with those who are responsible for our anti-doping policy, and, it turns out that they are not very responsible, because they create reasons for such WADA decisions", Klimov said.