Moscow (AFP)
The Russian anti-doping agency must decide on Thursday whether to appeal the exclusion of Russia from world sports competitions for having falsified the data of controlled athletes, an unprecedented sanction qualified by Moscow as anti-Russian.
Unless surprised, the supervisory board of Rusada should announce around 13:00 (10:00 GMT) its refusal of the decision taken on December 9 by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to ban Russia from participation for four years in major international events, notably the 2020 and 2022 Olympic Games and the 2022 Football World Cup.
Formally, once the Russian refusal has been notified to the World Anti-Doping Agency, WADA will appeal to the CAS.
The ban on Russia provides that only hand-picked Russian athletes will be able to participate in the competitions, but under a neutral flag and without the national anthem being played.
The Russian Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Sports have campaigned for Rusada to challenge this exclusion, which Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has called "anti-Russian hysteria" even though he acknowledges the existence of a doping problem.
The head of state, Vladimir Putin, should be questioned on the subject Thursday, during his traditional river press conference at the end of the year where his answers will be eagerly awaited in the world of anti-doping and by athletes.
- "Ineffective and unnecessary" appeal -
So far, he has denounced "politically motivated" sanctions in contradiction with the Olympic charter and considered that "any punishment (should) be individual" and not "collective".
If the sanctions are so heavy, it is because the AMA estimated that Russia had "manipulated" the data of the anti-doping laboratory of Moscow having been transmitted to him at the beginning of year, an umpteenth twist in a scandal which started with the revelation in 2015 of institutional doping practiced since 2011 and involving senior officials, secret agents and trafficked urine vials.
Against the grain of the government and its supervisory board, Rusada director general Iouri Ganous repeatedly found the Russian authorities guilty in this scandal, predicting heavy sanctions and demanding that Putin be swept clean a merciless fight against cheaters is engaged.
He was therefore opposed to his organization appealing to WADA sanctions, but his position was in the minority. "The (supervisory) board will decide to appeal," he lamented to AFP, deeming it "ineffective and unnecessary."
According to him, Moscow must recognize its faults to be able to reform. In addition, it judges that any appeal before the CAS was doomed to failure considering the extent of the falsifications.
- Prestige policy -
In Russia, sport remains eminently political, as Mr. Putin relied on major competitions to build the prestige of his country, organizing the Winter Olympics in Sochi (2014) or the World Athletics Championships (2013) , swimming (2015) and ice hockey (2016).
The 2018 Football World Cup attracted more than three million tourists and 17 foreign heads of state attended the opening ceremony.
If the endless saga of doping has dealt a blow to the image in the world of the Russian giant, in the country, the idea of a Western plot to humiliate and eliminate a geopolitical and sports competitor remains very much in vogue, as it is put forward by the authorities.
For the sportsmen, the banishment of Russia is experienced as a new catastrophe, their country having already been excluded from various competitions since 2015. Many people criticize an excessive firmness of the AMA.
Others, on the contrary, made the Russian government responsible, like the triple world champion in high jump Maria Lasitskene.
"Why do our athletes continue to systematically use banned substances, do doping coaches continue to work with impunity and do our officials continue to falsify official documents?" She denounced the day after the announces sanctions.
© 2019 AFP