IAAF TASKFORCE: INTERIM REPORT TO IAAF COUNCIL, 6 FEBRUARY 2017
1.

On behalf of the Taskforce, I am pleased to present this fourth report to the IAAF
Council. I will cover three things: (i) I will explain the progress that the Russian
Athletics Federation ('RusAF') has made since the Council’s last meeting in satisfying
the conditions for reinstatement set by this Council; (ii) I will provide a roadmap
setting out the remaining milestones that RusAF needs to reach to achieve
reinstatement; and (iii) I will give the Taskforce’s recommendation in relation to
RusAF’s request that the Council give athletes in certain age categories blanket
permission to compete internationally in advance of RusAF’s reinstatement.

Progress since last Council meeting
2.

As a reminder, to be reinstated RusAF must demonstrate that the three
'Reinstatement Conditions' set by the Council "have been met, and can reasonably
be expected to continue to be met moving forward”. Those conditions are:
1st,

that RUSAF complies in full with the World Anti-Doping Code and IAAF AntiDoping Rules;

2nd,

that the IAAF and RUSADA (the Russian national anti-doping organisation) are
able to conduct their anti-doping programmes in Russia (in particular, drugtesting) effectively and without interference; and

3rd,

that as a result, the reintegration of Russian athletes into international
competitions will not jeopardise the integrity of those competitions.

3.

At the Council's last meeting, on 1 December 2016, the Taskforce reported that
RusAF and the Russian authorities had made further progress towards meeting the
various Verification Criteria listed in the Taskforce's Terms of Reference, that the
Taskforce was now focused in particular on (i) the official reaction to Professor
McLaren's report, including in particular its findings of state complicity in a broad
doping scheme; and (ii) the reinstatement of RUSADA as an independent, effective
and fully operational NADO. The Taskforce therefore recommended that there be
no change to RusAF's status at that time, but said that we would try to come back to
this meeting with a clear roadmap for RusAF's reinstatement to membership of the
IAAF.

4.

I have to report that there have been some negative developments since the
Council's meeting in December. In particular:
4.1

Various high-level Russian officials have made extremely unhelpful public
comments. For example, Deputy Prime Minister Mutko suggested that Russia
has "scaled back its activities at restoring IAAF membership because the IAAF
does not seem eager to restore the country's membership"; while Elena
Isinbayeva (who is now the chair of the RUSADA supervisory board) attacked

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 new Russian whistle-blower Andrey Dmitriev for the disclosures he made on
his blog and in an ARD documentary.

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4.2

Second, Vladimir Kazarin is a senior ARAF coach who has been charged with
doping Russian national team athletes. He has been provisionally suspended
since August 2015, pending CAS's ruling on the IAAF's request for a life ban.
In January 2017, ARD broadcast footage of Mr Kazarin coaching at least two
elite Russian athletes at a facility run by the Ural State University of Physical
Culture and Sport (which is under the control of the Ministry for Sport).
RusAF subsequently explained that it had stopped funding Mr Kazarin, and
had barred him from attending any national training camps, but it continued
to face practical and legal difficulties in enforcing provisional doping bans,
and could only really stop him from coaching if and when the CAS issued a
permanent ban.

4.3

Pending reinstatement of RUSADA's testing function, there continues to be
very limited testing of Russian track & field athletes at the national level.
Furthermore, there continue to be troubling incidents in respect of the
testing that is taking place. For example, (i) on 25 January 2017 it was
reported that five athletes had withdrawn from a national competition when
they heard that DCOs had turned up to do drug testing; (ii) in at least one
case, boxes of samples being shipped to foreign labs for testing were opened
and inspected, and (it appears) attempts were made to open a sample bottle;
(iii) presently the Russian authorities are refusing to release ABP samples that
have been screened at the Moscow lab so that the IAAF can ship them to a
foreign lab for further testing; and (iv) finally, the issue of access to athletes in
'closed cities' has still not been resolved (although the Taskforce has been
assured it will be soon).

On the other hand, there have also been several positive developments since the
Council's December meeting. In particular:
5.1

RusAF President Dmitri Shlyakhtin continues to impress the Taskforce with his
efforts to reform RusAF and its regional members, and with his tireless work
to meet the specific and detailed requirements set out in the Verification
Criteria.

5.2

Colonel Zherdev, a representative of the Investigative Committee of the
Russian Federation, met with members of the Taskforce in Moscow last
month, and explained how the Committee is cooperating with the French
criminal authorities in investigating the conspiracy between former IAAF and
ARAF officials to cover up Russian doping cases. Colonel Zherdev also
confirmed that the Investigative Committee is looking at all of the findings in
Professor McLaren's two reports (the second of which was issued on 9
December 2016). He confirmed it is looking not only at the role of Moscow
lab director Grigory Rodchenkov in doping Russian athletes and manipulating
drug tests to cover up that doping, but also at what Professor McLaren found
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 about the involvement in that conspiracy of officials from the Ministry for
Sport, from the Centre for Sports Preparation linked to the Ministry for Sport,
and from the FSB. Colonel Zherdev assured the Taskforce members that an
exhaustive investigation will be done and anyone found to have done wrong
will be brought to justice.
5.3

Russian 1500m runner Andrey Dmitriev spoke out publicly, first in a blog and
then on German television, about the continuing culture of doping in Russian
track & field. Taskforce members also met with him in Moscow last month,
and were impressed with the efforts he is making, with some colleagues, to
start a public debate and a popular movement in support of clean sport.

5.4

Taskforce members also met in Moscow with one of the international experts
appointed by WADA to assist RUSADA with its reinstatement efforts, and
were encouraged by her description of the progress made in recruiting and
training the new staff required to enable RUSADA to start functioning fully in
accordance with the World Anti-Doping Code. The Taskforce members were
told that RUSADA remains on track to start its own testing again in May 2017
(it plans to conduct about 6,000 tests in total in 2017, including on track &
field athletes), with a view to full reinstatement in November 2017. And new
Minister for Sport Pavel Kolobkov also met with the Taskforce members and
provided assurances that the Ministry will provide every necessary support to
RUSADA, but will not interfere in any way with its operations.

Roadmap to reinstatement
6.

Based on the above, the Taskforce does not think the Council should consider
reinstatement of RusAF's membership today. However, barring any unexpected
developments, the Taskforce does think that it will be able to recommend
(conditional) reinstatement of RusAF to IAAF membership if and when the
following milestones are met:
6.1

All outstanding Verification Criteria have been satisfied, and those
Verification Criteria that are ongoing -- such as the requirement of full
cooperation with the French criminal authorities -- continue to be satisfied
moving forward.

6.2

The testing of Russian athletes (including not only IAAF testing of IRTP
athletes but also national-level testing by or on behalf of RUSADA) is taking
place without any further adverse incidents or difficulties.

6.3

RusAF has delivered a written report that provides a rigorous root cause
analysis of the legal and practical reasons why it has been unable to date to
enforce the provisional suspensions imposed on Russian track & field
coaches, and an explanation, supported by an independent legal opinion, of
how in the future, whether through changes in the law, in contractual
arrangements or otherwise, it will be able to enforce all suspensions (whether
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 provisional or final) imposed on athletes and athlete support personnel under
its jurisdiction in an effective and timely fashion.
6.4

There has been an appropriate official response to the McLaren reports,
specifically addressing Professor McLaren's findings that officials from the
Ministry for Sport, the FSB, and the Centre for Sport Preparation were
involved in the doping scheme, either by convincingly rebutting those findings
or else by acknowledging and properly addressing them.

6.5

RusAF has taken demonstrable objective and practical steps to cultivate the
clean sport movement championed by Andrey Dmitriev and his colleagues,
including having RusAF’s leading officials, athletes and coaches speak in
support of the movement, and providing financial and other practical
assistance to the movement as appropriate.

6.6

WADA has determined that all of the conditions it has specified for the
reinstatement of RUSADA as a truly autonomous, independent and properlyresourced national anti-doping organisation have been met, and on that basis
has reinstated RUSADA as the official, Code-compliant NADO for Russia. (As
noted above, the current WADA roadmap contemplates full reinstatement of
RUSADA by November 2017, but that depends on timely achievement of the
various milestones on that roadmap. If there are delays/interference in
achieving any of those milestones, then the timeframe for compliance will be
delayed and the November date would, we understand, be unlikely to be
achievable).

Proposal in relation to age-group athletes
7.

In the meantime, pending RusAF's reinstatement to membership:
7.1

The Taskforce understands that many Russian athletes have applied to
compete in international competitions as neutral athletes, pursuant to the
special rule adopted by this Council last June for this purpose, and the Doping
Review Board is now in the process of reviewing those applications in
accordance with the published guidelines. The Taskforce recommends that
RusAF be required to supply an official comment in respect of each
application, providing any relevant information it holds, and specifically
advising whether it agrees that the athlete applicant meets all of the criteria
to be granted neutral athlete status, and so endorses the application on
that basis.

7.2

RusAF has asked whether a blanket permission can be granted for all under15 athletes, under-18 athletes, and Masters-level athletes to compete in
international competitions as neutral athletes, with immediate effect. The
Taskforce has considered this request carefully. Balancing the desire to
encourage the aspirations of young athletes to excel in the sport against the
need to protect the integrity of international competition, the Taskforce
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 recommends that the Council (a) permit under-15 athletes to compete in
international competitions as neutral athletes until further notice; while (b)
leaving any under-18 athletes and Masters-level athletes that wish to
compete in international competition as neutral athletes to apply to the
Doping Review Board in accordance with the normal guidelines.
8.

The Taskforce asks the Council to approve this report, including the individual
recommendations it contains. I would be happy to address any questions.

Rune Andersen, Taskforce Chair
6 February 2017

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