"This chapter is now closed": RUSADA will not challenge the CAS decision in the case against WADA

"We look forward to starting work with WADA"

The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) does not intend to challenge the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which partially upheld the sanctions of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) against Russian sports.

The organization said it would not appeal to the Swiss Federal Court "in the interests of athletes."

“RUSADA welcomes and supports the refusal of the panel of arbitrators to apply collective punishment measures against Russian sports, the introduction of which was requested by WADA.

Such measures are fundamentally contrary to the spirit and letter of the Olympic Charter, and could set a dangerous precedent that threatens the very foundations of the Olympic movement, ”the organization said in a statement.

On December 17 last year, CAS partially satisfied the claim of WADA, upholding the deprivation of RUSADA's compliance status and the removal of the Russian national team, but at the same time reduced the sentence to two years.

Domestic athletes will be able to take part in major international tournaments only under a neutral flag without using state symbols.

The Russian side had the opportunity to challenge this decision by submitting an appeal to the highest judicial authority in Switzerland before February 2.

At the same time, commenting on the CAS decision, RUSADA reiterated its disagreement with the conclusions of the arbitrators.

In particular, we are talking about accusations of manipulating data from the Moscow laboratory.

And the Russian agency noted that WADA did not provide evidence of proper verification of the authenticity of the copy of the database provided by the informant, with which they compared the database of the Moscow laboratory obtained later.

In addition, RUSADA stated that the WADA specialists who extracted the data for comparison were, in fact, "not fully prepared for the mission" and "did not adhere to the best

forensic practices and proper data extraction methodology."

“Despite the controversy and reservations over the panel's findings, RUSADA believes that this chapter is now closed and looks forward to working with WADA to fully re-establish membership ... The agency remains fully committed to the fight against doping and will continue to defend the rights of clean "Russian athletes and counteract any forms of discrimination against Russian sports," added RUSADA.

"We need to accept the verdict and move on"

RUSADA's decision was positively assessed in Russia.

According to sports lawyer Artyom Patsev, there was no point in challenging the CAS verdict, since there was a high probability that the appeal would be rejected.

Moreover, a new trial would have forced the Russian side to spend too much money.

“In my opinion, RUSADA made the right decision, because the Supreme Court of Switzerland can overturn any verdicts of CAS, like other arbitration courts in Switzerland, only on procedural grounds, that is, if gross procedural violations were committed during the consideration of the case.

Revision of the CAS decisions on the merits is beyond the competence of the Swiss Supreme Court.

In this case, it is obvious that there were no gross procedural violations that influenced the essence of the dispute and at the same time affected the interests of RUSADA itself.

Therefore, the chances of canceling the verdict on the complaint of our anti-doping organization would tend to zero, "Patsev said in an interview with RT.

Other organizations also participated as a third party in the proceedings between RUSADA and WADA, which also have the opportunity to challenge the verdict.

Earlier, the president of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Stanislav Pozdnyakov announced such a possibility.

At the same time, the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) and the Russian Ice Hockey Federation (FHR) have already refused to appeal.

At the same time, Patsev explained that the intervention of third parties would also hardly be crowned with success.

“The fact is that the Swiss Supreme Court, first of all, when considering such complaints, looks at whether the appellant's own procedural rights have been violated.

In the case of OCD or RUSADA, most likely, a refusal will follow.

In my opinion, those who did not participate in the process at all have more chances of successfully challenging the decision.

For example, among the deputies of the State Duma, who were banned from participating in the activities of international sports organizations.

Such a restriction can be challenged, since bans were imposed on the person, not even giving him the opportunity to state his position before the arbitrators, ”the lawyer added.

According to the deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation Svetlana Zhurova, it was necessary to put an end to the process for a long time, since the athletes first of all suffered from uncertainty.

“Of course, it was possible to file an appeal, but in that case, we would again delve into the lawsuits and delay the already launched mechanisms.

This has been going on since 2014, and it was necessary to start a new stage, after which there will be no restrictions or sanctions.

Probably, such a moment has come.

You need to accept the verdict and move on.

It is not a fact that the Supreme Court would have made a decision that would have been better than the one already available.

In addition, it is better for athletes to understand what to do next, and not be in this limbo, ”said Zhurova.

Yana Yegoryan, two-time Olympic champion in fencing, supported RUSADA's decision.

She noted that the easing of WADA sanctions can already be considered a big plus, so there was no point in continuing to defend your innocence in higher instances.

“I think our management and lawyers understand more than I do.

If they did not continue to raise a noise around the story, then this is the right decision, which I support.

It is not a fact that the situation would not have worsened if we had continued to defend our position.

Now the main thing is for the Olympics to take place, so that the pandemic ends and everything returns to its normal rhythm.

My opinion is that it is already a huge plus that we are going to the Games.

Yes, there will be no flag, it will be replaced by the IOC flag.

They will come up with some kind of alternative to the anthem.

We cost a lot, nothing critical happened, ”Yegoryan said.