The head of the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation, Oleg Matytsin, in an interview with the Izvestia Information Center, shared his expectations from the meeting of the Court of Arbitration for Sport in November in the case of WADA versus RUSADA.
“I hope that legal mechanisms will work in terms of the legal protection of our interests,” he said. – Although I am always guided by the fact that a terrible end is better than an endless horror. Whatever decision is made, no matter how tough it may be, Russia is a powerful, independent sports power. In any case, we will one hundred percent hold international competitions, our system is ready for these challenges.
According to Matytsin, Russia plays an important role in the world sports community as a reliable partner in major international competitions.
– Contracts that were signed with international federations prior to the court’s decision remain in force. This is the Volleyball World Championship in 2022, the Ice Hockey World Championship in 2023, the major SportAccord event, which, I hope, will take place in 2021, the World Universiade in 2023 in Yekaterinburg … That is, we are talking about interests not only Russia, and the entire world community, where our country plays a huge role as a reliable partner who always fulfills its obligations. Who might be interested in destroying this system? Therefore, we hope for a fair decision, which will allow, among other things, to exclude collective responsibility in relation to our athletes. Even if some mistakes were made, specific people should be responsible for them, and not the country as a whole.
We will remind, hearings in the case of WADA and RUSADA were postponed to November due to the coronavirus pandemic. The exact date of the meeting is still unknown.
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