DPA/Berlin/Moscow


The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) yesterday suspended the accreditation of Moscow’s anti-doping laboratory in the wake of doping accusations.
WADA said in a statement “the suspension, which takes effect immediately, prohibits the Moscow Anti-doping Centre from carrying out any WADA-related anti-doping activities including all analyses of urine and blood samples.” Samples in Moscow will be moved to and tested elsewhere while Russia can appeal the sanction before the Court of Arbitration for Sport, WADA said. It acted upon a recommendation by an independent WADA commission which in a 350-page report on Monday implicated Russia in “state sponsored doping programmes” and called for various sanctions to be implemented.
The ruling athletics body IAAF will meet later in the month to discuss the recommendation to ban Russia, a measure that could keep the country out of next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman said yesterday that the allegations, first made in a German TV documentary last year, are “groundless.”
“Whenever any charges are made, there must be some evidence that they rely on. As long as there has been no proof, it is hard to react to any accusations, which look rather groundless,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, according to state news agency TASS.
“It’s none of our business to ponder over the causes of such scandals,” Peskov said in Sochi, where Putin is expected to attend some Olympic-related events with Russia’s Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko this week.
Mutko said on Russian state television channel Rossiya-24 that half of the doping allegations were correctable and the other half lacked proof. The acting president of the All-Russia Athletic Federation (ARAF), Vadim Zelichenok, said it would not follow the recommendation by the world governing body IAAF that Russia voluntarily not participate in international competitions because of the doping allegations.
“Honestly, we are surprised by this recommendation and of course we will not follow it,” Zelichenok told the Interfax news agency.
The heads of the Australian and British athletics federations meanwhile spoke out in favour of such a suspension.
“I think given the time between now and the Rio Olympics, it’s very difficult to see that their house is going to be demonstrably in order by the middle of next year,” Athletics Australia chief executive Phil Jones told ABC radio. UK Athletics chairman Ed Warner told the Press Association: “I am all for suspension until the systems in Russia are proved to be robust.”
He added that the IAAF must also move the 2016 junior world championships from its original Russian host city of Kazan to another country. European athletics (EAA) chief Svein Arne Hansen said its council dealt with the matter at a meeting and “that once we know all the facts we will have a unique opportunity to take appropriate action, implement necessary reforms and start to rebuild the credibility of our sport.”