Montreal (AFP)
Excluding the Olympic Games, Euro 2020 Pending: An independent committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) on Monday urged very harsh sanctions against Russia, suspected of falsifying data transmitted to WADA investigators.
If WADA's Executive Committee, scheduled to meet on December 9 in Paris, confirms the long list of measures recommended to it by its Compliance Review Committee (CRC), Russia would simply be ostracized of international sport for four years. But the case would surely not be over because Moscow could challenge the sanctions before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
The punishment is in any case up to "an extremely serious case" in the eyes of the CRC, quoted in the statement issued by WADA Monday. Among the grievances cited was the disappearance of "hundreds" of suspicious anti-doping test results from the files that Moscow had submitted to WADA earlier this year.
"Moscow's data are neither complete nor entirely authentic," the agency said in a statement. However, the submission of these data was a condition set by WADA to lift previous sanctions against the Russian anti-doping agency (Rusada), at the heart of an institutional doping system between 2011 and 2015, already at the origin of a vast scandal.
According to WADA's press release, the CRC even suspects that "fabricated evidence" has been added to the database to charge the former head of Moscow's anti-doping laboratory, Grigory Rodchenkov, who is now a refugee. in the United States, where he was one of the key witnesses to bring to light the Russian doping system.
So, this is the strong way that is advocated. First of all, for four years, no Russian official, nor the country's flag, nor his anthem would be allowed to appear at the Olympic Summer or Winter Games, as well as at the Olympic Games. Youth or the Paralympic Games. This would concern the Tokyo-2020 Summer Games and the Beijing Winter Games in 2022.
- Neutral flag -
For athletes, only those who would be "able to demonstrate that they are not involved in any way" in doping cases would be admitted to competitions, under neutral flag. Sanctions already suffered by Russia at the 2018 winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, or at all international athletics competitions since 2015.
Under Vladimir Putin, Russia has made sport a tool of its power on the international stage, but it never stops paying the consequences of large-scale doping.
Thus, if WADA follows its committee, the country would no longer be allowed to apply for international sporting events, including OJ.
Worse, if events have already been assigned to him, the organizer will have to withdraw them and "reassign them to another country, unless it is impossible from a legal or practical point of view". In theory, this measure could concern the Euro-2020 football and the city of St. Petersburg, which is to host meetings, including a quarterfinal. The final of the 2021 Champions League is also scheduled.
It remains to be seen whether the WADA Executive Committee, composed equally of representatives of the Olympic Movement and governments, will go so far. The previous sanctions against Russia, to punish the establishment of the system of institutional doping, have been the cause of heated controversy in recent years, voices raised to criticize the indulgence of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Shortly before the Rio 2016 Olympics, WADA had already advocated an exclusion from Russia, but the IOC had the last word and left it to the international sports federations. But since then, WADA has strengthened its sanctions powers, and it would be up to the CAS to rule on appeal.
© 2019 AFP