Letting the cheats back is treachery
sport.” It is nearly three years since RUSADA was suspended for its central role in the country’s doping scandal.
The decision was reached at a meeting of WADA’s 12-strong executive committee in the Seychelles.
Jim Walden, the lawyer for Russian whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, said: “WADA’s decision to reinstate Russia represents the greatest treachery against clean athletes in Olympic history.
“The United States is wasting its money by continuing to fund WADA, which is obviously impotent to address Russia’s state-sponsored doping.
“The only way to stem the tide of Russian corruption is for Congress to pass the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act, which will give the Department of Justice the necessary tools to put those engaged in doping fraud behind bars, where they belong.”
UK anti-doping chief executive Nicole Sapstead said the outcome is “deeply troubling” and WADA has “cast aside its responsibilities to clean athletes, sports fans and those who work tirelessly for clean sport”.
US Anti-Doping Agency chief executive Travis Tygart described the decision as “the biggest in WADA’s history” and “a devastating blow to the world’s clean athletes”.
Reedie said: “Today, the great majority of WADA’s ExCo decided to reinstate RUSADA as compliant with the code subject to strict conditions, upon recommendation by the agency’s independent CRC (Compliance Review Committee) and in accordance with an agreed process.
“This decision provides a clear timeline by which WADA must be given access to the former Moscow laboratory data and samples with a clear commitment by the ExCo that should this timeline not be met, it would support the CRC’s recommendation to reinstate non-compliance.”
RUSADA and its Moscow laboratory were suspended in November 2015 when a WADA-sponsored investigation into allegations of cheating within Russian athletics first uncovered evidence of a state-run doping conspiracy.
Further proof of Russia’s endemic cheating emerged in 2016 when a second investigation, led by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren, broadened the scandal to more than 1,000 athletes in 30 sports over a five-year period.
Yuri Ganus, the director general of RUSADA, welcomed the decision but said: “There’s a lot of work ahead. There are conditions... in order to definitively be reinstated we need to meet these conditions.”
UK Sport demanded an explanation, saying in a statement: “We are disappointed in the decision.
“We call on WADA to fully and transparently explain how it came to the compromise of reinstating Russia – and how it will ensure that the new conditions are fully met and implemented.”
The reinstatement of RUSADA has given the country’s suspended athletics federation hope it too may be reinstated.
The IAAF will meet in December to discuss progress made by the Russian federation.