Russian sports minister suggests putting WADA in charge of national anti-doping organizations
MOSCOW. April 2 (Interfax) - Russian anti-doping organizations could become branches of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which in that case would be responsible for their work, Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov said.
"WADA is monitoring the work of all national anti-doping organizations and laboratories, and responsibility is borne by the states where these structures are located. The consequences of the inconsistencies detected fall on athletes, on the federations, as happened in our case. In my view, that's wrong," Kolobkov said in an interview with RBC published on Monday.
"Therefore, I would propose transferring all national anti-doping organizations and laboratories directly to WADA with the status of branches. Let them appoint their directors, but then also bear responsibility," he said.
The sports minister said that if that happened, Russia would be ready to continue fulfilling its obligations, including financing anti-doping work. "If they adopt such an option, then they will not be able to make accusations against countries, saying that someone's hiding test results. And then this whole story will end," Kolobkov said.