DECISION OF THE WORLD ATHLETICS COUNCIL
IN RELATION TO RUSAF’S BREACH OF THE ANTI-DOPING RULES
Whereas:A.

On 9 November 2015, an Independent Commission appointed by the World Anti-Doping
Agency reported that there was a deeply rooted culture and practice of doping by Russian
athletes, fostered by complicit administrators (including senior officials of the Russian
Athletics Federation - RusAF), coaches, and medical personnel, who persuaded Russian
athletes to dope and/or facilitated and/or covered up their doping.

B.

On 13 November 2015, Council suspended RusAF's membership of the IAAF for breaching its
obligations as a member federation in relation to the fight against doping. As a result, RusAF
was no longer able to exercise the rights of a member federation, including the right to enterits athletes in international competitions (although Council has exceptionally allowed
Russian athletes to compete in international competitions as ‘Authorised Neutral Athletes’
provided they meet specified criteria). Council also specified the conditions that had to besatisfied in order for RusAF’s membership to be reinstated. In response, RusAF replaced its
senior officials and governing council, and reported regularly on its compliance efforts to theTaskforce established by Council for that purpose, but as of November 2019 RusAF had not
yet satisfied all of the requirements for reinstatement.

C.

On 21 November 2019, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) charged a number of senior RusAF
officials (including the President, the Executive Director, and a Board member) with
tampering with the doping control process and complicity in high jumper Danil Lysenko's
provision of false explanations and fabricated medical records to the AIU in an effort tocover up his whereabouts anti-doping rule violation. Those officials have denied the charges,
which will now be resolved by the independent Disciplinary Tribunal.

D.

On the same day, the AIU charged RusAF itself with breaching its obligations under the AntiDoping Rules (ADR), specifically by failing to report anti-doping rule violations and failing tocooperate with the AIU's investigation (in breach of the 2018 ADR and 2019 ADR), and byengaging in improper acts in relation to doping in athletics and obstructing, hindering ordelaying the AIU's investigation (in breach of the 2019 IAAF ADR).

E.

At its meeting on 22 November 2019, Council decided to suspend the reinstatement process
and the ANA process pending resolution of the charges against RusAF.

F.

On 29 January 2020, the AIU referred the charges to Council pursuant to ADR Rule 15.9.3(b),with a recommendation that, in light of the seriousness of the charges, the ANA process
should remain suspended until the charges were finally determined, and (if the charges wereupheld) Council should consider imposing the severest possible consequences on RusAF.

G.

Once again, RusAF replaced its senior officials and governing council, and on 3 March 2020,
RusAF’s new President, Evgeniy Yurchenko, formally admitted on behalf of RusAF that it
committed the following violations of the ADR set out in the charge letter:(1)

failure to comply with the ADR (breach of Art 1.6 of the 2018 ADR);(2)

failure to report ADRVs to the IAAF and cooperate with its investigations (breach ofArt 15.3 of the 2018 ADR);

1H.

(3)

breach of the general conduct obligations on national federations (Art 15.4.1 of the2019 ADR), including engaging in conduct relating to doping that is likely to prejudice
the interests of the IAAF and/or bring the sport into disrepute, and engaging indishonest, corrupt, fraudulent or improper acts in relation to doping;(4)

breach of the obligation to cooperate with an AIU investigation (Art 15.8.2 of the2019 ADR); and(5)obstructing or delaying an AIU investigation (breach of Art 15.8.10 of the 2019 ADR).

In the same letter, the new RusAF President offered the new RusAF Board’s ‘sincere
apologies for the consequences this whole situation caused for the Athletics community’.

Now, therefore, in exercise of its sanctioning powers under Article 16 of the 2018 ADR and 2019
ADR, Council decides as follows:1.

Council acknowledges the new RusAF Board’s decision to admit the charges and apologise
for the effect of RusAF’s misconduct on the athletics community. In light of that admission
and apology, Council will not call a special Congress meeting of all member federations to
consider the expulsion of RusAF from membership of World Athletics at this time.

2.

However, Council wishes to underline the seriousness of RusAF’s misconduct:

3.

2.1

This was a conscious and wilful conspiracy by senior RusAF officials and an athlete
who had been granted Authorised Neutral Athlete status to fabricate evidence tocover up an anti-doping rule violation by the athlete, and then to destroy evidence
and provide false testimony in order to obstruct the AIU investigation into that coverup.

2.2

It suggests that despite all of the time and effort that the Taskforce and Council have
put into the reinstatement process, to date RusAF has only paid lip-service tosatisfaction of the reinstatement conditions. In fact, there has been little or nochange in the deep-seated culture of lack of respect for anti-doping norms and lackof integrity in addressing doping in Russian athletics, including active efforts to
support and/or cover up anti-doping rule violations by Russian athletes. In short, thisis another gross betrayal of trust that compounds the harm done by the previousregime.

2.3

The impact of this misconduct is great. It extends the reputational harm that thesport suffered when the Russian doping scandal first broke in 2015, which hasseriously compromised World Athletics’ ability to raise commercial revenues. It
means much of the time and effort that World Athletics has spent on this matter
since 2015 has been wasted, and it means the burden and distraction for World
Athletics of dealing with the Russia crisis will now be prolonged, so that more
opportunities to devote the time and resources to other priorities will be lost.

Council therefore censures RusAF in the strongest possible terms, and warns that if there is
any repeat, Council is very likely to propose to member federations that RusAF bepermanently expelled from membership of World Athletics.

24.

To reflect the seriousness of the misconduct and its detrimental effect on the image andreputation of the sport, to deter RusAF and others from acting in such gross breach of their
obligations as members of World Athletics in future, to compensate World Athletics for thelosses it has sustained as a result of that misconduct (in terms of wasted management timeand effort, lost opportunities, and otherwise), and to maintain the confidence of the publicin World Athletics’ commitment to protect the integrity of the sport, RusAF is required topay the sum of US $10 million to World Athletics. Of that sum, US $5 million is payable on orbefore 1 July 2020. Payment of the remaining US $5 million will be suspended for a period of
two years from today. If at any point in that period RusAF commits a further breach of theAnti-Doping Rules (without prejudice to any sanctions that may be imposed for that furtherbreach), or fails to make meaningful progress towards satisfying the reinstatement
conditions fixed by Council, that US $5 million will become immediately payable. If not, thepayment obligation will expire at the end of that period.

5.

On or before 1 July 2020, RusAF must pay the outstanding costs incurred by the AIU ininvestigating this matter to date, provided that the AIU sends RusAF an invoice for thosecosts no later than 1 May 2020.

6.

Recognising that the measures originally taken by Council (suspending RusAF’s membershipbut permitting Russian athletes to participate in international competitions on a neutralbasis) have apparently been insufficient to prompt the required change in culture andbehaviour in Russian athletics, and recognising also that the athlete whose anti-doping ruleviolation RusAF was trying to cover up was an athlete who had (with RusAF’s endorsement)sought and obtained permission to compete in international competitions as an Authorised
Neutral Athlete:

6.1

A new Authorised Neutral Athlete process will be put in place, with a revised application
process and revised criteria to be determined by the Doping Review Board on behalf ofCouncil.

6.2

For the remainder of 2020, no more than ten athletes (in total, not per competition) will be
granted eligibility to compete (as neutral athletes) in the following international
competitions: (a) the athletics programme for the Olympic Games; (b) World Athletics Series
events;1 and (c) the European Athletics Championships. RusAF may choose which athletes
will make up this ten out of those who have applied for and been granted Authorised
Neutral Athlete status, but it must choose athletes in the International Registered Testing
Pool in priority to any other athletes. No changes may be made to the ten, for any reason,
once they have been nominated by RusAF.

6.3

There is no cap on the number of Russian athletes who may compete (if invited, and if they
have been granted Authorised Neutral Athlete status) in international competitions otherthan those listed in paragraph 6.2.2

1

The World Athletics Series competitions for the remainder of 2020 are the World Athletics Race
Walking Team Championships in Minsk in May, and the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships inGdynia in October. There is also the World Under-20 Championships, but the cap of 10 Authorised NeutralAthletes shall not apply to that competition.

2Russian under-15 athletes may continue to compete in under-15 international competitions as
neutral athletes without the need to make individual applications to the DRB.
3

6.4

At its last meeting in 2020, Council will review the above provisions relating to Authorised
Neutral Athletes and determine whether they should be renewed or revised forinternational competitions staged in 2021. If necessary, it will repeat that process for 2022,
2023, and so on.

7.

If RusAF fails to pay either the US $5 million mentioned in paragraph 4 or the costs
mentioned in paragraph 5 in full on or before 1 July 2020, Council reserves the right toreconsider this decision and to revoke or amend any part of it and/or supplement it asCouncil sees fit.

Monaco, 12 March 20204