By David Owen
November 12 – The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has moved immediately to suspend the accreditation of the anti-doping laboratory in the Russian capital, the Moscow Antidoping Center. The head of the laboratory, Grigory Rodchenkov, has also resigned.
The moves come after the facility was heavily criticised in this week’s report by a WADA Independent Commission chaired by Richard Pound, the Canadian International Olympic Committee (IOC) member who is a former WADA President. The 335-page report recommended that WADA withdraw its accreditation of the Moscow laboratory “as soon as possible”, alleging that the facility was “unable to act independently”.
WADA emphasised that the provisional suspension prohibited the Moscow laboratory from carrying out any WADA-related anti-doping activities including all analyses of urine and blood samples. All samples would now be transported “securely, promptly and with a demonstrable chain of custody” to an alternative WADA-accredited laboratory.
Sir Craig Reedie, WADA President, said the agency had “acted swiftly to one of the key recommendations made by the Independent Commission in its report. The Moscow laboratory is provisionally suspended, and the status of the laboratory’s accreditation beyond that will be decided by a disciplinary committee which will be formed shortly to review the case.”
The Moscow laboratory’s problems, if not resolved relatively rapidly, could leave FIFA – whose flagship tournament, the FIFA World Cup, is to be staged in Russia in 2018 – in the predicament of having to ship anti-doping samples outside the host-country for analysis for a second World Cup running.
Last year, samples collected from World Cup players had to be analysed outside Brazil, at a laboratory in the Swiss city of Lausanne, because of WADA’s revocation of the accreditation of the so-called Ladetec laboratory in Rio de Janeiro.
The Moscow laboratory has the right to appeal WADA’s decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland within 21 days.
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