Russia escapes complete sporting exile despite Wada's four-year ban

Russia has been hit with a four-year ban from using its flag, anthem and team name at the Olympics and World Cup, but the nation has escaped total sporting exile over fresh doping data breaches.

The recommendations of Wada's Compliance Review Committee (CRC) for sanctions which stop short of a blanket ban on athletes were unanimously approved by the governing body's executive, despite the admission from vice president Linda Helleland that the proposed punishment was insufficient.

The Russia flag and anthem will now be refused at events such as the Tokyo 2020 and football's 2022 World Cup in Qatar, but athletes who can prove they are untainted by the doping scandal will be able to compete under a neutral flag. Helleland said the ban was "not enough".

"I wanted sanctions that cannot be watered down," she said. "We owe it to the clean athletes to implement the sanctions as strongly as possible." As previously disclosed by Telegraph Sport, Russian athletes only face exile from the world stage as a direct result of the recommendations if they have been implicated in the scandal first exposed five years ago.

Formal notice of punishment for the country’s ongoing cover-up of sport’s worst drugs scandal will now be sent to the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada), alleging non-compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code for failing to provide an “authentic” copy of Moscow anti-doping laboratory data.

Russia - who will still be allowed to compete at Euro 2020 - now have several months to appeal as the matter will be referred to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) for final adjudication.

The CRC had discovered data was manipulated before being handed over to investigators, as required under conditions for reinstating Rusada’s compliance with the code in September 2018.

However, Russia will escape exile from football’s European Championship – the world’s third-biggest sporting event – next summer, and the 2021 Champions League final will remain in St ­Petersburg.

The 26-page CRC recommendation concludes that the Moscow data was intentionally altered "prior to and while it was being forensically copied by Wada in January 2019". As a result of the vote, "Russian athletes and their support personnel may only participate in major events staged in the four-year period where they are able to demonstrate that they are not implicated... in incriminating circumstances".

Jonathan Taylor QC, chair of the CRC, said the ExCo has "delivered a strong and unequivocal decision".  "While being tough on the authorities, this recommendation avoids punishing the innocent and instead stands up for the rights of clean athletes everywhere," he said.

"While I understand the calls for a blanket ban on all Russian athletes whether or not they are implicated by the data, it was the unanimous view of the CRC, which includes an athlete, that in this case, those who could prove their innocence should not be punished, and I am pleased that the Wada ExCo agreed with this.”

Sir Craig Reedie, the Wada president who retires this month, also defended the ruling, insisting it illustrated "Wada’s determination to act resolutely in the face of the Russian doping crisis". "The blatant breach by the Russian authorities of Rusada’s reinstatement conditions, approved by the ExCo in September 2018, demanded a robust response," he said.

Those calling for total exile prior to Monday's meeting in Switzerland argued Russia's falsifying of data proved that similarly piecemeal sanctions imposed at last year’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, at which most of its athletes took part under the umbrella “Olympic Athletes from Russia”, have failed to change its behaviour.

The Wada ban could still end up being watered down in the face of opposition from the International Olympic Committee to the very concept of collective punishment, including to a blanket ban on Russia hosting global events.

A majority of the members of Wada’s athletes’ committee said on Sunday they “strongly believe the only appropriate response is a complete ban on Russian participation”. On Friday, the athletes’ commission of UK Anti-Doping called for a “total ban of Russian athletes in all competitions until the international community of athletes, sports bodies and supporters have confidence that cheating on this scale has been eliminated and that integrity in sport can begin to be ­restored”.

Several leading anti-doping figures are now demanding major reform at Wada, describing the punishments as insufficient. "To allow Russia to escape a complete ban is yet another devastating blow to clean athletes, the integrity of sport and the rule of law," said Travis Tygart, chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency. "And, in turn, the reaction by all those who value sport should be nothing short of a revolt against this broken system to force reform."

Meanwhile, Rob Koehler, the former Wada deputy director who director general at Global Athlete, told Telegraph Sport the governing body "has robbed athletes worldwide of their right to clean sport due to their inability to enforce the strongest possible sanctions on Russia".

"If there has ever been a time to press the Wada reset button to start over, it is now," he said. "Wada’s lack of independence and inability to enforce the highest possible sanctions on Russia reinforces that the agency is not fit for purpose. Russia has played Wada like fools and while doing so has undermined the integrity of sport. Athletes need a strong independent Wada and that is not the Wada we have today."

The new sanctions have also prompted uncertainty surrounding new Russian ban for team sports such as the 2022 World Cup. Fifa was unable to clarify whether a team can compete at the tournament as neutral. The governing body says it is in contact with Wada "to clarify the extent of the decision in regards to football".

Whatever punishment is imposed could be appealed by Russia, whose foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has dismissed all this as another attempt by the West to sideline his nation.

A total of 168 Russian athletes competed under a neutral flag at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang after the country was banned following the 2014 Games, which it hosted in Sochi.