Substitution of doping samples and falsification of data: Russia may remain outside of international sports

They again want to remove Russia from the largest sports competitions due to doping. The country may lose the World Cup.

Photo: Depositphotosolymp

The “Anti-Doping Agency” (WADA) “Compliance Committee” (WADA) of November 25 recommended that Russian athletes be suspended for four years from competitions and world championships, as well as depriving Russia of the right to host such events. Not only were the trips of Russians to the next Olympics under their own flag, but also their performance at competitions in the country's most popular sports - from football and figure skating to the world championship in hockey. At the same time, WADA uses a new procedure by which the agency itself can decide who and how much to remove from the competition, and the federations of different sports are theoretically obliged to obey it. However, WADA made sure that things did not come to a total ban on the performance of Russian athletes in all world sports. Russia is not threatened, for example, removal from the next European Football Championship. Moreover, St. Petersburg will host three or four matches of the championship. "Medusa»Understands what kind of competition they can really deprive athletes from Russia.

Why so?

The next - and the most severe in the history of the fight against doping - punishment, according to the committee, is consistent with misconduct. Russia gave WADA a falsified database of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory (it was the main operator of anti-doping checks in the country) for 2012-2015 years.

The transfer of this base was a condition for renewal of accreditation in WADA of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA). This was necessary so that all restrictions on performance at the Olympics would be lifted from the country and the bans on several federations in various sports should be lifted.

WADA did not hide the fact that the agency needed the base in order to check suspicions regarding dozens (or even hundreds) of Russian athletes who could participate in the “state doping system”. This system, according to WADA, existed before and during the Sochi Olympics in 2014.

The existence of such a WADA system was reported by the former head of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory Grigory Rodchenkov, who fled to the USA in 2016 and received protection there as a witness to the crime. According to Rodchenkov, during the Olympics in Sochi, urine samples from Russian athletes were replaced with “clean” samples that they had previously passed. Rodchenkov personally doped Russian athletes and helped in the substitution of samples. During non-competitive periods, physical substitution of samples was not required: Rodchenkov for several years simply entered falsified data into the WADA database. Real data on failed tests was stored in the internal base of the Moscow laboratory.

On the subject: Russian dope whistleblower hiding in the US

In 2017, the WADA commission created to verify Rodchenkov’s story (McLaren’s commission) received a copy of the database from the “informant”. The commission as a whole confirmed Rodchenkov’s version of the participation in the “system” of many Russian athletes, including Olympic champions. However, the agency at that time did not have enough power to punish all Russian sport, which, according to WADA, was compromised by the existence of a “state doping system”. As a result, decisions on punishments were made by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and sports federations. WADA was also unable to disqualify all athletes mentioned in Rodchenkov’s stories and in a copy of the Moscow laboratory’s base: The Sports Arbitration Court in Lausanne, where Russia appealed, found the copy to be insufficient evidence; only athletes were suspended and stripped of their awards, against which there were other evidence, for example, an abnormal salt content in urine samples.

As a result, the punishment was relatively easy: only a few federations (for example, the Athletics Federation) banned Russia; The IOC invited a large group of Russian athletes under the neutral Olympic flag to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in 2018. Russia also made a compromise: it recognized the findings of another WADA commission (Schmidt commission), which established that there was a certain state doping system, but there was no evidence of the participation of senior officials in it. In addition, Russia replaced the leadership of the Ministry of Sports and RUSADA, and also promised to provide the original database of the Moscow laboratory. RUSADA was restored in all rights, and Russia returned to the Olympic family.

The base should have been transferred until January 1 of 2019, but the process dragged on. It was seized in 2017 by the Investigative Committee as evidence in the Rodchenkov case, which Russia continued to call the main organizer of the doping system. The investigation claimed that Rodchenkov had remote access to the base and falsified it from the United States until 2017 in order to transfer the blame on officials from RUSADA and the Ministry of Sports. Finally, in January, the base was transferred to WADA; during its study, according to WADA, it turned out that someone had made corrections to it until January 2019, when she had long been on the investigative committee. Thousands of entries disappeared, but fake traces of the fact that her Rodchenkov rules from America appeared, according to WADA experts.

Will Russia be punished for sure?

Almost certainly. On December 9, the issue of sanctions against Russia will be considered by the WADA executive committee. Theoretically, he can return the case for a new consideration to the compliance committee (he cannot completely close it). WADA fears that the executive committee will be pressured by IOC officials who do not want to completely remove Russia. The IOC officially supported the WADA recommendations, noting, however, that it favors the participation of “pure” Russian athletes in competitions.

If the executive committee of the agency approves the punishment, Russia can challenge it in the Arbitration Sports Court within a month. The court consists of three arbitrators - one will be appointed by Russia, the other by WADA, then these two will choose a chair. The process may take several months. The arbitrators will be judged by the principle of “balance of probabilities,” that is, they do not need irrefutable evidence, as in a criminal court. They will appreciate the conclusions of WADA experts that the base was falsified, and Russia's objections to it.

If the verdict is guilty, the arbitrators will assess whether the punishment matches the WADA documents and the gravity of the deed Russia. The assessment will be made on a tough, but at the same time vague document, which entered into force only in April 2018 of the year (WADA prepared it after it could not achieve harsh punishment for Russia for previous violations). According to the document, violations are of varying degrees - from critical to "others." The punishment that they intend to impose on Russia - in fact the maximum possible - implies multiple "critical violations". The criteria for these violations, however, are rather vague and leave room for judges. Russian officials have said they are hoping for success in court.

On the subject: Russian officials admitted to the doping system

If the court leaves the sentence unchanged, then all organizations that have signed the WADA Anti-Doping Code will be required to:

• remove Russian athletes from all major international competitions;
• to deprive Russia of already granted rights to host such competitions and not to allow her applications for new elections. There is a reservation: if it is too late to cancel the competition in Russia for reasons of economics and logistics, then this is not necessary;
• all Russians should be removed from the leadership of international sports organizations; Russian officials will not be able to attend the competition;
• RUSADA will again be banned from work, which means that Russian athletes will have to pass tests in foreign organizations in order to prove their “purity”.

In reality, not all federations are going to follow the new rules and automatically remove Russian athletes. Some who have close ties with Russia and earn on Russian athletes and sponsors are already looking for legal loopholes in order not to implement the WADA decision.

Where exactly they will not let Russia?

Russian athletes (in case the court approves the punishment) will probably not be able to go under their own flag for the next summer (in 2020 in Tokyo) and winter (in 2022 in Beijing) Olympics. The main difference from the Pyeongchang Olympics, where the Russians have already traveled under a neutral flag, is the composition of eligible athletes and other restrictions will be determined with the participation of WADA, and not solely by the IOC.

Most likely, on the basis of the access of “clean” athletes under a neutral flag, the majority of Olympic sports federations will make a decision by WADA. Such a scheme has been operating in athletics in recent years: there, Russians perform under the white flag, they are forbidden any Russian symbols (up to manicure in the colors of the flag); the Russian team is called "Permitted Neutral Athletes."

Federations, according to the decision of WADA, will be prohibited from inviting Russia to world championships and other "major sports competitions." Under the latter, the code refers only to competitions in several sports or between different continents. At the same time, the code also includes the concept of “international competition”, which includes European championships and even club tournaments like the Champions League. And according to the code, they can also be removed from them for violation of anti-doping rules. However, WADA, for some reason, decided to confine itself only to the world championships.

Thus, problems can arise only at world championships (including during the selection for the World Cup-2022 football, which will begin in the fall of 2020 year). The Russian participants will also suffer the only Universiade besides the Olympics, the Universiade: probably, in 2021, Russian students will not go to Chinese Chengdu, and in 2023, students from other countries will not come to Yekaterinburg.

What exactly will leave?

All other competitions are not subject to restrictions. So Russia is not threatened with removal from the European Football Championship, which will be held in the summer of 2020; St. Petersburg, for the same reason, will not be deprived of the right to host several matches of this championship. In the same St. Petersburg in the 2022 year will be the final of the Champions League. Russian club teams will continue to play in European football competitions and in the Euroleague basketball. Skaters will ride the stages of the Grand Prix. Former WADA deputy director Rob Kekhler, who went into opposition to the agency’s leadership and demanded the global removal of Russia from the sport, called such limited sanctions “regular cover operations” of a benevolent attitude towards Russia.

And what will the struggle go for?

There are several world championships that were supposed to take place in Russia in the coming years. The most attractive for the audience is the World Hockey Championship in 2023 in St. Petersburg. In addition, there is also the youth hockey championship of the same year in Novosibirsk. The head of the international hockey federation Rene Fasel has already announced that he will fight for Russian hockey players as participants in all competitions and for Russia as the hostess of tournaments. Another object for the fight is the 2022 World Volleyball Championship (in ten cities), but here hardly anyone stands up for Russia.

The main threat is the possible removal of Russia from the selection at the World Cup-2022 in football. The disciplinary rules of FIFA, the governing world football and UEFA, responsible for the selection in Europe, do not include the participation of “neutral athletes”, but disqualifications are widely represented. Including, there is a suspension of teams and for doping - but only if the team has more than two players passed positive tests. On the other hand, football federations are the most independent from WADA. So, until the 2005 of the year, they refused to introduce disqualifications for doping under the WADA rules (they decided everything themselves).

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