“Regarding preventing athletes from competing in competition, that is a separate matter and relates to when a sporting federation is suspended, as was the case when the IAAF provisionally suspended the All-Russian Athletics Federation last week”, WADA spokesman Ben Nichols told Runner’s World.
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Russian officials have said they hope to return to competition in less than three months.
IOC President Thomas Bach says he has been notified of “some very important first steps” taken by Russia to reform its anti-doping program following the suspension of its track and field federation.
The five principle criteria are headed by “immediate corrective and disciplinary measures” against “all athletes, athlete support personnel, administrators, members or other persons who have committed an anti-doping rule violation or engaged in any kind of intentional act of complicity”, said the IAAF in a statement.
The head of the Russian doping laboratory accused by the Wada report of destroying more than 1,400 blood and urine samples, has left his position, and the laboratory has had its accreditation suspended.
“The verification criteria must be robust otherwise the inspection process will fail”, said IAAF president Sebastian Coe.
Natalia Zhelanova, advisor to the Minister of Sport of the Russian Federation talks to the media during the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Foundation meeting on November 18, 2015 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
“We are ready to promptly, effectively and conscientiously cooperate with WADA”, Russian news agencies quoted Mutko as saying.
Russia’s anti-doping agency (RUSADA) has been declared non-compliant with the global code as the fall-out from last week’s extraordinary report which found the country had operated a systematic, state-sponsored doping programme continues. “So we will help them if they wish to exercise that commitment and exercise the necessary financial means to ensure they overcome the problems they’ve got because in overcoming them, they will need to change the structure of RUSADA [Russia’s Anti-Doping Agency]”.
He said that setting up a professional intelligence gathering unit “would allow WADA to be proactive” and could address compliance issues as well.
Speaking to BBC Sport, Travis Tygart, chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, said athletics was at a crossroads as it faces its biggest anti-doping investigation to date.
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Russia, along with Andorra, Argentina, Bolivia, Israel and Ukraine, has been deemed “non-compliant”.
