RUSADA Dir General Yuri Ganus appealed to Putin to help get doping data to WADA. GETTY IMAGES
Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) Dir General Yuri Ganus asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for "help in getting key doping data released" to WADA inspectors, according to the AP. WADA reinstated the suspended RUSADA in September on the condition that Russian authorities "hand over lab data." WADA officials said this month that they "left Moscow empty handed" after Russian authorities prevented them from accessing data. Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov, however, told local media that the WADA team "would return." In an "emotionally charged letter" released on Thursday, Ganus appealed to Putin to reverse the decision and allow the data to be given to WADA inspectors. Ganus warned that refusal to do so "would hurt Russia’s efforts to clean up its sports from doping." In the letter, Ganus said, "We're standing on the edge of the abyss, and I'm asking you to protect the present and the future of our clean sports, the current and future generations of athletes" (AP, 12/27).
