The head of WADA Craig Reedy: sports outside politics is incredible, it is an impossible dream. When and why wada was created

After one of the independent doping experts was banned by the Russian special services from visiting closed cities, the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency Craig Reedy wrote a letter to Vitaly Mutko demanding not to interfere with the work of foreign specialists, including in cities with a special regime. However, as the Times notes, a year ago, the WADA president was criticized, on the contrary, for being too soft on Russia.


President of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Craig Reedy sent a letter to Vitaly Mutko demanding that independent experts be able to test athletes, even if they are in closed cities.

As the Times explains, this message is caused by the fact that the German anti-doping service representative was interrupted by Russian FSB officers when she tried to take tests from a Paralympian in Russia's Trekhgorny, which is a closed city. She was threatened with deportation if she came within 80 kilometers of any closed city, and her Russian assistant was threatened with arrest.

Moreover, in a conversation with a journalist of the publication, the head of WADA said that changes in the Russian anti-doping sphere are proceeding at an extremely slow pace, and, in his opinion, two years may pass before Russia comes to the desired result. " What Russia has done to date could have been done months ago"Reedy said.

Reedy also named the officer who will interrogate the former head of the Russian anti-doping laboratory Grigory Rodchenkov and whistleblower Vitaly Stepanov. It will be Professor of Law Richard McLaren. He previously served on a commission of experts who disclosed cases of doping among Russian athletes.

However, the newspaper notes, such harsh words of Reedy may be caused by the fact that about a year ago he himself was criticized for writing to Mutko at that time, how he values \u200b\u200bthe relationship between his agency and Russia. Today he assures that he is very sorry about that letter, writes Times.

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Russia will consider the possibility of applying personal sanctions against the leadership of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). This issue will be raised on December 12 at a special joint meeting in the Federation Council. In addition to senators, Russian athletes, parliamentarians and diplomats will take part in it. Izvestia was told about this by two high-ranking sources in the parliamentary circles of the Russian Federation who will take part in the upcoming event. Andrei Klimov, head of the Federation Council's commission for protecting state sovereignty and preventing interference in internal affairs, confirmed that retaliatory measures would be considered, stressing that most of the WADA member states are NATO countries that systematically discredit Moscow's image on the international arena.

Andrei Klimov told Izvestia that the decision to convene the meeting on December 12 was not spontaneous. It was adopted long before the IOC's statement on the disqualification of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) for alleged violations of anti-doping rules by athletes (December 5). After all, the development of retaliatory measures against the World Anti-Doping Agency, which opposes our Olympians, has been on the agenda for a long time.

Since professional people are working against the Russian Federation, we need to carefully consider retaliatory steps. We know that US representatives talked with foreign diplomats and public figures, literally urging them to use sports topics against us. The people who pushed for this decision have nothing to do with sports. We must bring them out into the light of day and clearly show that this decision is not about sports. There will be a meeting on December 12 to determine further actions. They need to be brought out to clean water and deal with them, - said the senator.

He drew attention to the "geopolitical" composition of the WADA leadership, whose discriminatory actions led to the decision to admit Russian Olympians to the Games in South Korea under a neutral flag.

More than half of the WADA leadership are representatives of the member countries of the NATO military-political alliance, whose goal is to fight Russia. And this despite the fact that NATO represents only one tenth of the world's population. Agree, a very strange proportion. I am not claiming that each of them works as a secret agent of the North Atlantic Alliance, but in practice it turns out that way. Yesterday, our diplomats and media-“foreign agents” suffered from their actions, and today - the Olympians. All these are different platforms that are used by NATO countries in order to throw Russia back, - said the senator.

WADA President - Representative of Great Britain Sir Craig Reedy. The post of vice-president is also held by a citizen of the NATO state - Norway - Linda Helleland. Among 38 members of the supreme body of the World Anti-Doping Agency, which makes all major decisions, there is not a single representative of Russia. Most of the countries are members of the alliance.

Commenting on the situation, the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov noted that it is necessary to exclude emotions and seriously analyze the decisions made in relation to our team. However, as two sources of Izvestia in the parliamentary circles of Russia note, the question of the need for sanctions against the leadership of the World Anti-Doping Agency was raised long before the latest statements by WADA and the decision of the IOC. At the meeting on December 12, all proposals will be studied in more detail.

They will also consider the issue of personal sanctions against the leaders of WADA, and the termination of funding for the organization, - said another high-ranking source of Izvestia, who will take part in the meeting on December 12.

According to the Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs Vladimir Dzhabarov, the WADA leadership has shown its true colors.

This organization and some of its leaders play by double or even triple rules, encouraging some and discrediting others. There were many scandals with athletes from the USA and Great Britain, but WADA brought everything to naught, ”the senator said in an interview with Izvestia.

By the decision of the IOC on December 5, Moscow is obliged to pay $ 15 million for the development of an independent doping control system, as well as compensate WADA's expenses for the investigation. At the same time, Russian athletes will be able to perform at the Games in Pyeongchang, which will be held on February 9-25, under a neutral flag. Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko has been banned from participation in the Olympic Games for life. The IOC's verdict was largely based on the WADA reports.

In an interview with R-Sport agency correspondent Semyon Galkevich, he told about his attitude to the situation with (RUSADA), said that he had never called for the disqualification of the Russian national team, and admitted that he did not understand why Russia did not recognize the report.

It has been difficult for all of us since December 2014, when the first commission was created to investigate the situation with doping in Russian sports. We have been living with this for three years now. And with the passage of time it only becomes more difficult, because I see the progress that RUSADA has achieved, as I said, they have already passed 90% of the way, there are only two points of the roadmap left.

Two points, which, I stress, were agreed by all parties. Agree, as the head of WADA, I simply do not have the right to say now: "Okay, sorry, we are removing these requirements and restoring you." It would look extremely strange.

- Are you now starting a joint investigation with the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation?

We replied to the Investigative Committee that we were ready to cooperate and accepted the offer. And they made a request to give us access to the Moscow laboratory. This is the most important thing now.

- And what did you answer?

Nothing so far, but I hope for a positive answer. This issue should be resolved as soon as possible. If you have the opportunity to contact the Investigative Committee, remind them of our request.

Do you agree that the clause recognizing the McLaren report is not a question for RUSADA? How can they get statesmen to say anything?

It is important for us to understand that all the institutions involved admit mistakes they have made and have learned from the past. We want to restore RUSADA, but first we need to get this recognition from the Russian leadership.

- Do you understand why this item is not being fulfilled? Why isn't the report accepted?

It just does not fit into my head why the report is not recognized. Maybe it's because we live in different cultures, in different parts of the world.
It seems that all the problems are in the wording. In the end, maybe there will be some new words, but now our Compliance Committee, led by Jonathan Taylor, uses the same wording that was used in his talk by Richard McLaren, and is not going to change them. If we are talking about all this in the context of the McLaren report, then it is logical to accept its wording.

By the way, about Taylor. It seemed to the Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation Pavel Kolobkov at a meeting of the WADA Board of Founders that it was not Craig Reedy, but Jonathan Taylor, who was in charge in the hall - he behaved so aggressively.

Taylor is just doing her job. And he does it well. This is a great professional whom we fully trust.

- Were you surprised that no one from RUSADA came to the meeting of the board of founders?

This is not a problem, we spoke with (CEO of RUSADA) two weeks ago. The Minister of Sports and the head of the ROC showed a desire to perform in Seoul, and we were pleased to give them the floor.

"WADA has never called for the disqualification of the Russian national team"

Do you think WADA's decision will affect the IOC's December decision on the admission of the Russian national team to the Olympics in Pyeongchang?

It shouldn't. I think the IOC has long been ready for such a development of events, for the fact that RUSADA will not be restored by December. First of all, the IOC awaits the completion of the investigations of its commissions. Well, do not forget that WADA is 50% composed of representatives of the IOC, so they know perfectly well what is happening.

We will definitely talk to (the head of the IOC) as soon as possible, next week. And I have something to say to him.

No, this will not be beneficial, as practice shows. Any of my words will inevitably lead to the fact that they write me in one of two directions. Believe me, we will provide the IOC with all the information we have.

Then explain what has changed compared to last year, when WADA called for the removal of the entire Russian team from participation in the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

This is a very big mistake. WADA has never called for the disqualification of the Russian national team. And in principle, it could not do this - it is not in our competence. In July last year, we went to the IOC with a proposal, in which we urged to consider the option of reducing the number of Russian athletes who are allowed to participate in the Games. Then the IOC passed the decision on to the federation, because it did not have all the necessary information. Now they already have it, so the situation is completely different. In early December, we will find out what the IOC will decide.

- In conclusion. Tell me, can you imagine sports outside of politics?

This is incredible, this is an impossible dream. Politics concerns literally every aspect of our life, and sport is the most important of all unimportant things in our life.

The head of the independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Richard McLaren, got into trouble. Now he can be imprisoned for perjury.

The head of the independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Richard McLaren, who spoke about the doping system in Russia in his report, refused to provide specific evidence. This was announced at a press conference by the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach.

It turns out that McLaren simply heaped all sorts of absurdities, and the Olympic Committee, instead of acting according to the Law, followed the lead of the head of WADA who was lying to his tongue.

On the eve of the rotten Olympics, McLaren made a report in which, allegedly, on the basis of the testimony of the discredited ex-head of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory Grigory Rodchenkov, it is said about the allegedly existing system of falsification of doping samples in Russia.

This report almost became the reason for the removal of our team from the rotten 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

From time to time, the so-called "McLaren list" is also mentioned - supposedly additional information to the report. This information has not yet been presented to the general public.

And in this "list" each time there are new names of Russian athletes who are allegedly guilty of doping. Many of them ended up missing out on the rotten Olympics.

Also because of this list, the Olympic Committee is going to remove the Russian Paralympic team.

And all this despite the fact that no concrete evidence of the guilt of any athlete was presented.

It is obvious that international conspiracy against the Russian team is being carried out on an illegal basis. McLaren's report was the reason for the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to remove our athletes from the Games.

Bach - seemingly a senior official - only just now finally announced that the IOC had asked McLaren for concrete evidence of the Russians' guilt before handing over the information to the IAAF. But, according to the President of the IOC, Richard McLaren refused to provide information because, in his opinion, it is not "urgent and vital."

And in the absence of evidence, the disorderly or, better to say, the criminal president of the IOC went in the wake of WADA. It seems to us that he is not a donkey at all, that he would so voluntarily go after a nonexistent carrot. Rather, the IOC president was paid.

Who did this? The question is solved simply. We remember what Sherlock Holmes said about this: look for who benefits.

The fact that the removal of the Russian national team was beneficial to Bach himself is for sure, because for such a crime there should be an appropriate payment. Well, the main beneficiary is Barack Obama. Before his departure, he seeks to show the whole world that, they say, under his rule, how many medals the US team collected.

In our opinion, both McLaren and Bach should be prosecuted for falsifying the charges. There is a similar article in the Criminal Code of each country.

Sophia Nyman

WADA headquarters in Montreal. Photo: Reuters

World Anti-Doping Agency(English WADA, World Anti-Doping Agency) is an international independent organization coordinating the fight against doping in sports.

The main document of the agency is the World Anti-Doping Code. It regulates the applicable anti-doping measures in all sports. In accordance with the provisions of the code, WADA conducts the following activities:

Forms a list of prohibited substances;

Carries out accreditation and control over laboratories involved in the collection of athletes' doping samples;

Informs athletes, coaches, doctors about the activities of anti-doping programs, the consequences of taking prohibited substances;

Notifies sports federations of athletes' doping abuse. On the basis of the materials provided, individual athletes or national teams may be removed from the competition.

When and why was WADA created?

The organization was created in 1999 at the initiative of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in cooperation with the governments of countries, other public and private bodies that control the issue of doping.

One of the first high-profile doping scandals by athletes occurred at the Tour de France in July 1998. This case was the reason for the organization of the "First World Conference on Anti-Doping in Sport", which was held in Switzerland in Lausanne from 2 to 4 February 1999. This event marked the beginning of WADA's history.

Who leads WADA and where is the organization's headquarters located?

WADA is headquartered in Montreal, Canada. The organization is headed by the IOC Vice President Craig Reedy.

Who is funding WADA?

To date, WADA receives half of its funding from the IOC, with the rest being donated by world governments. Russia in 2015 paid the agency more than $ 1 million, of which 745 thousand is an official membership fee, the rest is voluntary funding. According to WADA's annual report, in 2015 the agency's budget was $ 27.5 million.