Russia Taskforce Report to Council Meeting of 30 November 2022 / Rune Andersen. - Monaco : World Athletics, 2022
World Athletics’ Russia Taskforce expects to be in a position to make a final recommendation to the World Athletics Council on the reinstatement of the Russian Federation (RusAF) at the next Council Meeting in March 2023, provided RusAF continues to make progress in reforming its culture, Taskforce Chair Rune Andersen told the Council.
However he acknowledged that RusAF’s progress on its reinstatement plan would have no bearing on any Council decision on RusAF’s status arising from the war in Ukraine.
In presenting his regular report to the Council, Andersen said that the RusAF leadership team had “embedded a new culture of good governance and zero tolerance for doping throughout the organisation” under Acting President Irina Privalova.
He noted that RusAF is reporting historic anti-doping rule violations uncovered in the Moscow Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS), is delivering anti-doping education for 13,000 young athletes, has developed a test distribution plan that includes more than 2000 domestic tests of Russian athletes per year (most out of competition), and is taking other initiatives, including fining government-funded athletes for any single whereabouts violations.
But Andersen said that widespread and sustainable cultural change would likely take many years to embed and would proceed at different paces in different parts of the system. He expressed concern around the decision of the RUSADA disciplinary commission not to publish its findings in the case of the ice-skater Kamily Valieva.
He said the close monitoring and oversight of RusAF’s operations would not end when its suspension from membership of World Athletics was lifted, but this function would be taken over by the Athletics Integrity Unit, which would enforce a detailed set of Post-Reinstatement Conditions, more stringent than those currently imposed on “Category A” federations (those regarded as most at risk of major doping issues).
These conditions would be finalised with the AIU over the coming months and would be presented to the Council for approval before the Taskforce made its final recommendation on reinstatement.
The Taskforce would also recommend that, to prevent backsliding or interference, any material breach of the Post-Reinstatement Conditions should trigger a Council proposal to Congress to expel RusAF permanently from membership of World Athletics.
