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Russia set to contest 鈥榰nfair鈥 ban
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Russia has signaled it will file an appeal against its four-year Olympic ban due to World Anti-Doping Agency sanctions which President Vladimir Putin yesterday branded 鈥渦nfair.鈥
The Russian anti-doping agency鈥檚 supervisory board voted yesterday to file an arbitration case with the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland. WADA last week ruled Russia had manipulated doping laboratory data to cover up past offenses.
Putin said it was not fair to threaten Russia with more doping-related punishment, and that any sanctions should be on an individual basis. 鈥淚 think it is not just unfair but not corresponding to common sense and law,鈥 Putin said.
The case will likely be referred to CAS within the next 10-15 days, supervisory board chairman Alexander Ivlev said. After a panel of three CAS arbitrators is chosen, a verdict will be issued within three months.
鈥淭he ball will be in WADA鈥檚 court and the issue will be discussed in a legal context,鈥 Ivlev said. 鈥淲e consider the argumentation to be fairly strong and we will see how the issue develops.鈥
Yesterday鈥檚 decision must be approved by another panel of Russian sports and anti-doping figures, but that seems a formality. Most of the panel鈥檚 members, including the Russian Olympic Committee and Russian Paralympic Committee, have said they want an appeal.
Senior political figures, including Putin, had signaled they wanted an appeal filed.
鈥淲e need to wait calmly for the relevant rulings, including the arbitration court ruling and we鈥檒l know what position we鈥檙e in,鈥 Putin said yesterday. 鈥淩ussian athletes have been training and will keep training for all competitions.鈥
The WADA sanctions, announced last week, ban the use of the Russian team name, flag or anthem at a range of major sports competitions over the next four years, including next year鈥檚 Olympics and the 2022 soccer World Cup.
However, Russian athletes will be allowed to compete as neutrals if they pass a vetting process which examines their history of drug testing, and possible involvement in cover-ups at the lab.
That has prompted anger from some Western athletes and organizations like the US Anti-Doping Agency, which wanted a blanket ban on Russian athletes.
Putin added WADA鈥檚 recommended four-year ban on Russia hosting major sports competitions would have little effect, pointing to the 2022 men鈥檚 volleyball world championships as an event Russia intends to keep. WADA demands events are moved unless it鈥檚 鈥渓egally or practically impossible鈥 to do so.
That ban already doesn鈥檛 apply to next year鈥檚 European Championship soccer games in St Petersburg or the 2021 UEFA Champions League final, both of which are exempt because they鈥檙e continental, not world, championships.
Russia handed over the lab鈥檚 doping data archive in January in return for having earlier sanctions lifted in 2018. WADA investigators found evidence that Russia was intensively editing the data in the weeks before the handover to remove signs of failed drug tests.
WADA said it found fake messages spliced into chat logs in an apparent attempt to smear former lab director Grigory Rodchenkov, who鈥檚 become a key witness for WADA since leaving Russia.
Russia has produced its own report arguing that any editing was the result of illicit changes made from abroad, or the instability of the lab software.
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