Russia has been warned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that is must fulfill at least 12 more criteria before they can be ruled to be compliant with international rules.
The reinstatement by WADA of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) is seen as key to the country being welcomed back in to the international sports community, particularly athletics, where they remain suspended.
WADA suspended RUSADA after it was banned from testing in November 2015 following an independent investigation that discovered systematic violations of anti-doping regulations.
A subsequent investigation alleged evidence of a state-sponsored doping programme in Russia, which the Kremlin has denied.
Top of the “Roadmap to Code Compliance”, a document published by WADA, is that the Russian Government – through the Ministry of Sport – must “publicly accept the reported outcomes of the McLaren Investigation”.
Russia’s former Minister of Sport Vitaly Mutko, now the Deputy Prime Minister, has consistently criticised the findings of the McLaren Report, published in July 2016 which found evidence of systematic state-sponsored doping and attempts to cover up positive tests by the Russian Government before, during and after London 2012 and Sochi 2014 and several other major international events.
Russian President Vladimir Putin denied in December 2016 that the Government supported its athletes taking drugs or the existence of a state-sponsored doping programme.
He did acknowledge Russia had experienced doping problems.
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