Craig Reedie said that gaining access to the Moscow laboratory is "critical."GETTY IMAGES
WADA President Craig Reedie said that he understands skepticism over Russia's promise to allow access to its Moscow laboratory but that the country will face "even tougher sanctions" if it fails to meet the Dec. 31 deadline, according to Martyn Ziegler of the LONDON TIMES. In an open letter, Reedie said that Russian doping "poisoned sport," but that the decision to reinstate RUSADA will "deliver potentially compromising material on more Russian drugs cheats." WADA's decision last week was "strongly" criticized by athletes as well as national anti-doping agencies in Britain and the U.S. because it "agreed to compromise on Russia's acceptance of responsibility for the conspiracy" and to reinstate RUSADA "on only the promise of independent access to the Moscow lab." The letter said that Russia has met 29 of 31 criteria but the need to access data in the Moscow laboratory is "critical" and that led to the efforts to break the impasse, which were backed by "independent experts" on WADA's compliance review committee. Russia agreed to accept the findings of the IOC's Schmid report, which supported other inquiries' reports on the doping conspiracy but "removed references to state knowledge." Reedie said, "It was a clear effort to break a long deadlock, aimed primarily at securing the laboratory material we have long needed to show the culpability of suspected athletes" (LONDON TIMES, 9/24).
