The ban against the Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA due to Russian state doping expires on Saturday (17.12.2022). There is no end in sight to the processing.
Doping cocktails from mastermind Grigori Rodchenkow, exchange of urine samples through a secret flap in the wall, “guided, controlled and monitored” by the secret service and the Ministry of Sport: As special investigator Richard McLaren on July 18, 2016 in Toronto, he presented his investigation report on the Russian state doping scandal Olympia in Sochi, the shocked sports world stood still for a moment.
On Saturday, 2,343 days later, the ban on the Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA, confirmed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport CAS, expires because of its involvement in one of the biggest scandals in sports history. But the dark chapter is far from over.
“Confidence Extremely Low”
“The fact is, trust in Russia’s anti-doping system is extremely low, to put it diplomatically”, said Witold Banka, President of the World Anti-Doping Agency WADA, shortly before the end of the most recent two-year ban against RUSADA. According to WADA, this Saturday should therefore be a day like any other: “Of course, the process of reintegration does not end on December 17.”
Originally, WADA had imposed a four-year ban, but the CAS halved the sentence. This trial was about the aftermath of the original state doping scandal: the Russians had sent WADA massive amounts of manipulated data from the Moscow control laboratory in the course of the tough clean-up work.
Not yet “compliant”
Because of this and numerous other Russian audacity and fraud, RUSADA will not be officially classified as compliant again by WADA once the ban has expired. The lack of this official status alone could prevent Russian athletes from taking part in major sporting events without restrictions – regardless of the sanctions that have been imposed on Russia because of the war of aggression in Ukraine.
It could be weeks, if not months, before WADA declares its Russian branch “compliant” and thus officially rehabilitates it again. The “Compliance Review Committee” of the highest anti-doping authority will now first check whether RUSADA has met more than half a dozen requirements for reintegration. This includes, for example, the transmission of all doping files – this time unaltered – from the Moscow laboratory or the reimbursement of costs in the millions that arose in the processing of the scandal.
Hardly any pressure from world sport
WADA did not want to answer an ARD query to what extent Russia had already fulfilled these obligations, referring to the ongoing process. In any case, Moscow does not get a lot of pressure from world sport that could encourage them to settle all old scores – on the contrary.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), led by German President Thomas Bach, is currently preparing the reintegration of Russian athletes into world sport on a broad front, especially with a view to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris – despite the ongoing Russian war of aggression in Ukraine . The still unresolved Russian doping past hardly seems worth mentioning to Bach. Almost 300 suspected cases of doping in Russia have still not been cleared up.
McLaren: Harder punishment would have been more effective
Meanwhile, special investigator Richard McLaren looks sober at the goings-on in world sports politics. “I think the International Olympic Committee could have found a way to deal with the scandal better.”, he told the ARD doping editorial team. The punishment would have been more effective, he added, “If she had been toughere“.
The Canadian law professor had also been commissioned by WADA to deal with the scandal because of the revelations from the ARD documentary “Doping – How Russia Makes its Winners” broadcast by ARD at the end of 2014. Even today, McLaren looks back in disbelief on the time when he realized the extent of the Russian fraud: “I was shocked.”