Germany, UK Call on WADA to Penalise Russia Over Anti-Doping Code Violations

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The National Anti-Doping Agency of Germany (NADA) has called on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to declare the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) non-complaint with the World Anti-Doping Code.
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"We believe that Russian sports does not meet WADA requirements. So we think that if WADA is consistent, then RUSADA should be declared non-compliant with the [World] Anti-Doping Code after the Compliance Review Committee [CRC] session, which will be held on January 14-15. A clear position of WADA is important for protection of "clean" athletes," Andrea Gotzmann, NADA chair, said on Tuesday, as quoted by German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

READ MORE: WADA Votes to Reinstate Russia's Anti-Doping Agency

The UK Anti-Doping Athlete Commission has also called on WADA to reinstate RUSADA's non-compliance label.

"The Russian state need to prove unequivocally that they have learned from the biggest doping scandal under WADA’s watch, and that they will from this date forward be committed to a drug-free, transparent regime across international sport. Otherwise the WADA compliance review committee and the WADA executive committee must now immediately declare RUSADA non-compliant," the commission said in a statement quoted by UK media.

IOC Executive Board Discusses Reinstatement of RUSADA by WADA
In 2015, WADA accused Russia of multiple doping violations and declared RUSADA non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code. Russian officials have refuted allegations of a state-run doping programme, while admitting that Russian sports did have some issues with doping abuse.

On 20 September 2018, the great majority of the WADA Executive Committee voted to reinstate RUSADA as an organisation that complies with the World Anti-Doping Code, while stressing that WADA could revoke this status if the Russian agency failed to give WADA access to the data and samples of its Moscow anti-doping laboratory, which was at the heart of the doping scandal, by 31 December 2018.

Since the deadline has not been met, WADA said in a statement on Tuesday that the CRC would present recommendations to the WADA Executive Committee on the status of RUSADA after its January session.

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