Sixteen national anti-doping organizations (NADOs) have called on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to take immediate action following Russia's failure to meet a December 31 deadline to hand over data from its anti-doping laboratory.
"NADO leaders now call on WADA to acknowledge the gravity of this missed deadline and call for an immediate review and recommendation” from the international anti-doping watchdog’s Compliance and Review Committee (CRC), said a January 2 statement supported by the NADOs of the United States and 15 other countries.
"After more than three years of review, indecision and compromise in response to the worst doping scandal in the history of sport, the time has come to demonstrate that no individual [or] nation is exempt from compliance with the World Anti-Doping Code," the statement said.
The call comes the day after WADA President Craig Reedie said he was "bitterly disappointed" that the year-end deadline was missed by Russian officials.
He said the CRC will meet on January 14 to review the situation and make a recommendation on how RUSADA's failure should be handled.
But the NADO statement said: "The importance of this situation does not warrant providing a further two weeks for Russia to comply."
"With the interest of clean sport hanging in the balance, WADA must call for CRC to convene and consider this matter without further delay," it added.
RUSADA was stripped of its accreditation in 2015 after a WADA-commissioned report found evidence of widespread state-sponsored doping in Russian track and field and other sports.
The Russian agency was conditionally reinstated in September, a move that was widely criticized by members of the anti-doping movement.
If RUSADA loses its accreditation again it could lead to Russian athletes being kept from participating in the next Olympic Games and the continuation of the ban on the country's track-and-field athletes from participating in international competitions.
There are signs of disagreements within Russia over the issue. Moscow missed the December 31 deadline despite repeated pleas from the head of RUSADA, Yury Ganus, who asked President Vladimir Putin for help in getting the data -- which is reportedly in the hands of the federal Investigative Committee -- released to WADA.
