Russia to announce decision on appeal against WADA's doping ban today
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RUSADA supervisory board chairman Alexander Ivlev is expected to announce the decision at 1000 GMT.
Russia Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) is to decide on Thursday whether to appeal against the four-year ban imposed on Russia’s participation in all major sporting events including Tokyo 2020 after World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) ruled to punish the country for manipulating laboratory data on December 9.
The Supervisory board of RUSADA is to hold a meeting and is expected to formally reject the prohibition as it was earlier denounced by Russia’s leadership including President Vladimir Putin as being “politically motivated” and contradictory to the Olympic Charter.
The formal rejection could lead to an appeal against WADA’s decision at the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport.
RUSADA supervisory board chairman Alexander Ivlev is expected to announce the decision at 1000 GMT.
WADA’s executive committee unanimously issued a ban against Russia after its Compliance Review Committee (CRC) called for the proposed sanctions in a 26-page report declaring RUSADA to be non-compliant after the data handed over by the tainted Moscow laboratory was found to be "neither complete nor fully authentic".
The historical data which was handed over to WADA in January was found to have “several aggravating features” as hundreds of analytical findings had been removed and raw data and PDF files were found to be deleted.
Russia is currently facing a four-year ban on participation in international sporting events. Russian athletes and their personnel support are only to be allowed to participate if they can prove that they are not associated with the Russian doping scandal, even then they will not be allowed to represent the Russian Federation.
Russia is also not be allowed to host or bid to host any major sporting events. If Russia had already won a bid, the hosting rights are to be transferred to another country unless "it is legally or practically impossible to do so." The ban has threatened Saint Petersburg's staging of three games and a quarter-final for Euro 2020.
The expected announcement os RUSADA is to coincide with Putin’s annual marathon press conference where he is also set to restate his stance on the issue.