Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov with President Vladimir Putin. GETTY IMAGES
Moscow and the World Anti-Doping Agency are discussing a date for WADA experts to "visit and receive laboratory data," Russia’s sports minister said on Saturday, as Russia’s anti-doping agency, RUSADA, "stands on the verge of suspension," according to Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber of REUTERS. RUSADA was stripped of its accreditation in '15 after a WADA-commissioned report "found evidence of widespread state-sponsored doping in Russian athletics," but conditionally -- "and controversially -- reinstated in September." If judicial authorities "fail to hand over laboratory data by the end of the year, it will again lose its status," raising the prospect of Russia "being banned from a second consecutive Olympics and remaining shut out" of int'l athletics. Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov said that his ministry had received a letter from WADA President Craig Reedie outlining "the options for organising the process of copying the data from the Moscow anti-doping laboratory" and "specifying the equipment to be used." A WADA team "returned from Moscow empty-handed this month after Russian authorities said their equipment was not certified under Russian law" (REUTERS, 12/29).
