Russia Taskforce Report to Council Meeting of 10 March 2022 / Rune Andersen. - Monaco : World Athletics, 2022
The Council approved three recommendations from the Russia Taskforce in regard to the Russian reinstatement process.
Taskforce chairman Rune Andersen acknowledged that the Russian invasion of Ukraine had “cast a shadow” over the whole of Russia, including sport. But the Taskforce recommended that the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) reinstatement process should continue, to avoid the “very real risk” that RusAF would revert to past doping practices if the process was suspended now.
“Such a loss and backsliding would undermine that cultural change that RusAF has been cultivating and ultimately be detrimental to the interests of clean Russian athletes, the athletes in other countries with whom they compete, and therefore the integrity of future international competitions,” Andersen’s report explains.
Andersen told the Council that RusAF had made significant progress in many areas described in the roadmap, but that it was not yet fit for reinstatement.
Concerns remained around the leadership of RUSADA, Russia’s national anti-doping agency, and the fact that RusAF had not yet paid the reinstatement costs incurred by World Athletics for the third and fourth quarters of 2021.
Andersen warned that if payment was not made as a matter of urgency, this would be regarded as a breach of the reinstatement conditions and would lead to action against RusAF, which could include a suspension of the reinstatement process.
He further acknowledged that restricted travel, due to the invasion, would create challenges for the Taskforce in its oversight and monitoring role, which could lead to changes in the way it operates.
The Council accepted the following recommendations from the Taskforce:
- The Taskforce continues its oversight and monitoring of RusAF’s implementation of the Reinstatement Plan and KPIs, guided to the extent possible in current circumstances by the international experts. The Taskforce shall report on its work to Council at its next meeting in July 2022 or, if required, earlier.
- The Taskforce meet with RusAF to discuss progress against the Reinstatement Plan based on the KPIs, to assess and, if necessary, update the Reinstatement Plan and the KPIs, and possibly discuss and/or agree a specific timeline for consideration of reinstatement.
- The Taskforce review the Post-Reinstatement Conditions including the RusAF’s feedback on them and present them to the Council at its next meeting in July 2022 for approval and/or discussion, as the Taskforce deems appropriate at that time.
Andersen cautioned that presenting the post-reinstatement conditions to Council for approval in July did not mean that the Taskforce would recommend RusAF be reinstated at that time. He said any consideration of reinstatement would be “subject to further discussions”.
