MOSCOW (AP) – The World Anti-Doping Agency said Wednesday that she was “extremely concerned” by an effort to dismiss the director general of the Russian anti-doping firm from office.
Yuri Ganus could soon be fired after his agency’s oversight board advised that the Russian Olympic Committee and the Russian Paralympic Committee fire him for alleged monetary irregularities.
The President of the Republic of China, Stanislav Pozdnyakov, did not directly verify that he would expel Ganus, but said in a statement that “to great regret, our fears have been verified.” No date has been set for the decision.
“The World Anti-Doping Agency is incredibly involved in being informed of the recommendation,” WADA said in a statement. WADA added that it had raised considerations regarding “possible interference” in the Russian agency’s operations and that it had been rejected by a reaction by the chairman of the supervisory board, Alexander Ivlev.
“Today’s council raised other very important questions about the validity of the legal procedure that followed and the reasons for the advice,” WADA said.
Since his appointment in 2017, Ganus has criticized the Russian sports government and its record of anti-doping reforms. During his tenure, the firm known as RUSADA has assisted some high-level research on Russian athletes and sports officials.
An audit commissioned this year through the OCR and the CPP alleged that there were patterns of spending and conflicts of interest in RUSADA.
Control of Ganus and RUSADA responded that the audit conducted in secret, ignored vital evidence and has “probable symptoms of planned fabrication of false evidence”. Ganus also reported that ROC and CPP may have used auditing to collect sensitive data on how the company investigates doping cases.
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