Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has denounced the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) decision to ban Russia from competing in major sporting events for four years, saying that "political considerations" must be kept out of sports
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th December, 2019) Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has denounced the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) decision to ban Russia from competing in major sporting events for four years, saying that "political considerations" must be kept out of sports.
"#Cuba opposes World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) unfair sanctions to #Russia. Decisions concerning sports and the International Olympic Movement cannot be based on political considerations or double standards," Diaz-Canel wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
WADA's Executive Committee unanimously endorsed on Monday recommendations of the organization's Compliance Review Committee to suspend Russian athletes from participating in international sporting events, including the Olympic and Paralympic Games, for four years, while allowing "clean" athletes to compete, but only in neutral status. The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), in turn, was recognized as non-compliant with the global anti-doping code.
The country was also banned from hosting and bidding to host major international sporting events for four years.
The move comes after Russia was accused of manipulating data from the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory before handing it over to the agency's investigators, which was a crucial condition of the decision to reinstate RUSADA back in 2018.
