MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd January, 2019) Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov welcomed on Tuesday the decision of the Executive Committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to confirm the compliance status of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA).
The WADA announced its decision earlier in the day, noting that it was made after Russia had provided the agency with full access to the database of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory.
"The Ministry of Sports, for its part, has provided full assistance to ensure that the data transfer procedure is carried out in the most organized and transparent way and in accordance with the Criminal Procedural Code of the Russian Federation. I indeed assess our joint work as very large-scale and constructive. I welcome the WADA Executive Committee's decision and hope to continue the cooperation in the interest of 'clean' sports," Kolobkov said, as quoted by the press service of the Ministry of Sport.
He pointed out that the WADA decision on the RUSADA status was well-founded as the Russian party had been making great efforts to achieve that for last several months.
"In close cooperation with representatives of the WADA, the Russian Investigative Committee, the Ministry of Sport and the RUSADA, we have ensured full access to the data of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory in accordance with the WADA Executive Committee's decision of September 20, 2018. [We] ensured unhindered access to main analytic data: to equipment and servers, which allowed experts to quickly get necessary information and submit it to the WADA," Kolobkov added.
RUSADA was suspended in 2015 after WADA issued a report, which accused Russia of state-backed doping activities in the country's athletics. The allegations have been repeatedly denied by the Russian authorities.
In September 2018, WADA reinstated RUSADA under conditions that the key data from the Moscow anti-doping laboratory were delivered to WADA. On January 17, 2019, WADA said that its experts had successfully completed the work on copying the database of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory.
