RUSADA chiefs included in ROC taskforce for reinstatement of RusAF's membership in World Athletics
MOSCOW. Feb 5 (Interfax) - The head and deputy head of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) have been included in the taskforce put together by the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) for the reinstatement of the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF)'s membership in World Athletics, the international governing body for athletic sports, RUSADA Deputy General Director Margarita Pakhnotskaya told Interfax on Wednesday.
"We received a letter yesterday saying that [RUSADA General Director] Yury Ganus and I have been included in the ROC taskforce for reinstating RusAF and normalizing its interaction with World Athletics and the AIU [the Athletics Integrity Unit, an independent organization for opposing doping in athletics]," Pakhnotskaya said.
"We are thus far unaware of our functions, and I think we will find out what they are at the first meeting of the taskforce. We have not yet been informed as to the date of the first meeting," she said.
As reported earlier, the RusAF board resigned, and the Russian Olympic Committee's taskforce, which World Athletics representatives were invited to join on February 3, is now in charge of reinstating RusAF's membership in World Athletics.
The Russian Sports Ministry's commission for state accreditation of national sports federations ruled to suspend RusAF's accreditation on January 31.
In late November 2019, the AIU suspended RusAF President Dmitry Shlyakhtin and Executive Director Alexander Parkin for falsification of documents and unwillingness to cooperate with the inquiry into anti-doping rule violations by Russian high jumper Daniil Lysenko.
In August 2018, Lysenko was provisionally suspended by the IAAF for breaching anti-doping rules. Specifically, he failed to indicate his whereabouts for undergoing doping control tests three times.
On November 23, 2019, Shlyakhtin resigned at a snap meeting of RusAF's Executive Committee, and Yulia Tarasenko, the head of the St. Petersburg Athletics Federation, was appointed acting RusAF president.
On November 25, 2019, the Russian Olympic Committee demanded a comprehensive reform of RusAF.
On November 27, 2019, then-Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov said that RusAF must present a roadmap for overcoming the crisis to the Sports Ministry and elect new leadership. Otherwise, RusAF faced losing Sports Ministry accreditation.
RusAF presented a draft of such a roadmap to the Sports Ministry on December 5, 2019.
RusAF is to hold a snap conference at which its new president and governing bodies are to be elected on February 28, 2020.