Russian anti-doping agency to continue dialogue with WADA

Russian anti-doping agency (Rusada) will continue the dialogue on its reinstatement with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and will work as normal, Chairman of the agencys Supervisory Board Alexander Ivlev said on Thursday.

The WADA Foundation Board held a meeting in Seoul on Thursday. It refused to reinstate Rusada, which was recognised as non-compliant with WADA's code in 2015, reports Tass news agency.

"Rusada continues operating as normal: it is important not to stop taking the athletes' doping samples, continue recruiting and training doping controllers, analyze tests, develop education in the agency and continue improving the system of doping control in Russia," Ivlev said.

"It seems to me now that it is important to have a measured position and reaction to WADA's decision. I call to continue dialogue and search for a solution, even if this seems to be impossible sometimes," he said.

The WADA Foundation Board in its decision followed the recommendations of the Compliance Review Committee chaired by Jonathan Taylor.

He said Russia failed to fulfil two reinstatement criteria: Russia has not so far publicly recognized the conclusions of the WADA independent commission headed by Richard McLaren on the alleged state system doping and WADA has not received access to the doping test samples of the Moscow laboratory, which are sealed by the Investigative Committee.

Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov and President of the Russian Olympic Committee Alexander Zhukov told the meeting in Seoul about the agency's reform carried out over the past two years and said that it was impossible to fulfil these two points due to some objective reasons.

Rusada has been allowed to take doping samples from Russian athletes and the work is carried out under control of WADA and the UK Anti-Doping organisation.

--IANS

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