The Russian authorities and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) have agreed on the details of the transfer of data concerning test samples stored at the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov said.
"Following the second visit of WADA experts to Moscow, Russian Sports Ministry received a letter from WADA President Sir Craig Reedie. The Ministry is grateful to WADA for constructive cooperation. A thing to note is that we have the same view of ways to resolve the situation," the Sports Ministry’s press service cited Kolobkov as saying.
According to the minister, the WADA letter specifies options to copy the data from the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory and include information about the equipment involved in the process. "Technical details have been agreed on with the Russian Investigative Committee," TASS cited him as saying.
Kolobkov also noted that there was understanding between WADA experts and Russia’s representatives. "We support WADA’s position: it is in our common interest, as well as in the interests of Russian athletes and all clean athletes, to move forward and rapidly resolve all remaining issues. We are currently discussing the date of the next visit," the minister concluded.
On September 20, the WADA Executive Committee decided to reinstate RUSADA on condition that WADA would be granted access to the Moscow laboratory, sealed for a federal investigation, before the end of the year. WADA also expects Russia to provide all suspicious samples from the laboratory for retesting until June 30, 2019. If Russia fails to fulfill WADA’s conditions, RUSADA will be once again declared non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code and Russian athletes will be stripped of the right to compete at the international level.
WADA experts arrived in Moscow on December 17 to extract the lab data but failed to complete their mission as their equipment had not been certified under the Russian legislation. WADA said it was ready to resume the work once the Russian authorities resolved the issue.
