An international re-approval of the Russian anti-doping agency Rusada is still not in sight.
The board of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) has set further conditions for the return, it was said after a two-day meeting in Montreal. The reason is a new case in which Russian sports jurisprudence deviated from the WADA code.
Rusada objected to this and the resulting consequences, and Wada then formally informed the International Court of Arbitration for Sports (Cas), the world agency said. She banned Russia for four years in December 2019 for manipulating doping data from the Moscow laboratory. The ban, which Cas reduced to two years, expired last December and re-admission is still pending.
WADA also has concerns about the planned so-called friendly games in Russia in September 2024. Director General Olivier Niggli said there was no information about whether and what type of anti-doping program was planned for the event.
Before that, the Olympic Games take place in Paris. It is unclear whether athletes from Russia will be allowed to take part because of the ongoing war of aggression in Ukraine. The International Olympic Committee has suspended Russia’s National Olympic Committee over its inclusion of four annexed Ukrainian territories in October.