Russia ‘ready’ to co-operate with anti-doping agency

Vitaly Mutko, Russian sports minister, on Thursday said Russia was ready to co-operate with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in order to make its national anti-doping agency compliant once more.

WADA foundation board meeting in the U.S. had declared Russian Anti-Doping Agency non-compliant following from the decision on Friday by athletics’ ruling body IAAF to provisionally suspend Russia, threatening participation at next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

“We are saddened by the WADA decisions but respect them,” Mutko said.

“We are ready to immediately start the implementation of the WADA foundation board decisions, I am ready to board a plane immediately and fly to any part of the globe to begin dialogue with WADA specialists.

“Aside from that, we will meet with the WADA leaders in the near future to map out ways out of the situation. Now we need a roadmap to resolve the problems.”

Russia initially dismissed allegations of systematic doping of athletes first made by a German TV documentary in 2014 but these were confirmed by an independent WADA committee a week ago.

Among various recommendations made by the committee, the Moscow anti-doping laboratory lost its WADA accreditation but Mutko insisted work would continue even while Russia was being shut out of world sport.

“It is important to understand that the agency has not been eliminated, it continues its work,” he said.

“Time mechanisms of testing athletes and anti-doping control in Russia will be developed in the near future, but for this we will need to meet with WADA representatives.

“As for the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, the Russian Sports Ministry will provide full assistance in its reaccreditation.”