WADA, RUSADA In Constant Contact, Coordinate Moscow Lab Data Provision - Russian Official

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the Russian anti-doping authority RUSADA are constantly in contact, and they are coordinating the provision of data of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory to WADA, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets said on Tuesday.

KALININGRAD (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 08th January, 2019) The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the Russian anti-doping authority RUSADA are constantly in contact, and they are coordinating the provision of data of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory to WADA, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets said on Tuesday.

"They are constantly in contact, these are working issues," Golodets told reporters, when asked whether WADA experts would hold a visit to the Moscow anti-doping laboratory.

When asked if WADA representatives would obtain the laboratory's data that they expected to retrieve, the official said that this was a "working question coordinated by the two sides."

On Monday, Russian Sport Minister Pavel Kolobkov said that he expected WADA experts to visit the Russian capital on Wednesday to eventually extract the data of the Moscow laboratory.

WADA confirmed the information later in the day, specifying that the expert team would be comprised of three people. WADA President Craig Reedie said that WADA Executive Committee would consider RUSADA status at its mid-January session regardless of the success of the visit.

WADA experts visited Moscow in December 2018 but failed to retrieve the data in time, while December 31, 2018, was a deadline for Russia to provide access to the data and samples of the laboratory, which was at the heart of a doping scandal.

The deadline was set in September 2018. when WADA Executive Committee voted to reinstate RUSADA as compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code following the doping scandal.