Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko has said it will not take long to implement the remaining World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) criteria for the reinstatement of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA).
"A certain stage of fulfilling the road map criteria has been carried out, RUSADA obtained the right to plan and test in cooperation with UKAD (UK Anti-Doping). The WADA roadmap was updated in this regard,” Mutko stated on Thursday.
The PM was commenting on the second part of WADA’s Roadmap to Code Compliance, which describes the criteria for the reinstatement of RUSADA and which recently published on the organization’s website.
According to Mutko, it does not contain anything that could cause concern for Russia.
“Everything has been announced, everything will be implemented. And the results will be presented to the International Olympic Committee [IOC] and WADA in the near future,” he added.
One of the criteria mentioned in the list, however, states that Russian anti-doping authorities must publically accept the reported outcomes of the WADA-sanctioned investigation by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren on alleged state-sponsored doping in Russian sport.
Referring to the matter, Mutko said: “(We) conducting the investigation, as our anti-doping system admitted a failure. All measures have been implemented. But there were no state programs, and we will not admit something that didn’t exist.”
Mutko’s words echoed those of Vitaly Smirnov, the head of Russia’s Independent Public Anti-Doping Commission.
Talking to Russian outlet RSport earlier in the day, Smirnov admitted past problems in Russian anti-doping bodies, but added: “We have said on numerous occasions, that it (the report) contains controversial positions and regulations.”
“No one plans to accept this report unconditionally,” Smirnov added.
RUSADA was suspended from carrying out doping controls within Russia by WADA in November 2015 in the wake of the doping scandal. It was, however, permitted to plan and coordinate testing under the supervision of international experts and UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) this June.
Following a visit to the organization’s headquarters in Moscow in July, WADA Director General Olivier Niggli stated that RUSADA is “moving in the right direction” to be reinstated.