WADA’s Compliance Review Committee recommends non-compliance for RUSADA

Agency’s Executive Committee to consider recommendation on 9 December

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) confirms that, today, WADA sent a recommendation of its independent Compliance Review Committee (CRC) to WADA’s Executive Committee (ExCo) regarding the ongoing compliance procedure brought against the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA). 

The detailed, confidential, document -- which will be discussed by the ExCo at its meeting on 9 December in Paris**, France -- recommends that notice be sent to RUSADA asserting non-compliance with a Critical requirement of the International Standard for Code Compliance by Signatories (ISCCS); proposing serious consequences in line with the principles set out in the ISCCS; and, proposing reinstatement conditions.

The CRC recommendation was based on reports by WADA Intelligence and Investigations (I&I) and independent forensic experts, which were considered by the CRC during their meeting of 17 November, regarding a number of inconsistencies found in some of the data that was retrieved by WADA from the Moscow Laboratory in January 2019. WADA I&I’s subsequent assessment included consideration of responses from the Russian authorities to a list of detailed and technical questions, including follow-up questions, raised by WADA I&I and the forensic experts.

These questions gave RUSADA and the Russian Ministry of Sport an opportunity to explain the inconsistencies, as part of WADA’s decision on 17 September 2019 to open a formal compliance procedure against RUSADA.

WADA continues to pursue this matter robustly and as quickly as practicable, while ensuring that due process is respected, as outlined in the ISCCS.

Meanwhile, as previously outlined, the 40+ cases that were sent by WADA in July to a number of International Federations for action were based on data that were unaffected by these inconsistencies. Accordingly, those cases can proceed without delay, and more such cases will follow in due course.

**Following this media release, the Agency switched the ExCo meeting venue from Paris, France to Lausanne, Switzerland due to announced strike action in the French capital.