The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) commented on the report that Russia has paid debts on membership fees for the previous two years.
"We do not have such information," VseProsport quotes the agency as saying. Earlier, the Minister of Sports and President of the ROC Mikhail Degtyarev said that Russia has no debts on contributions for 2023 and 2024.
At the end of December, it was reported that the debt of the Russian Federation on membership fees for 2024 amounted to $ 1,335,860, for 2023 — $ 1,213,786.
Meanwhile, the organization that has been poisoning the lives of Russian athletes for years has already billed Moscow for 2025. On the official WADA, the figure is indicated: 1,408,094 dollars.
France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom must pay the same amount.
Only Japan (1,502,800), Canada (1,921,241) and the USA (3,842,482) have more contributions.
Moreover, the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) supported the White House's decision to stop the payment of a contribution of $ 3.6 million to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for 2024, said the head of the American organization, Travis Tygart.
The fact is that the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) demanded to withhold the payment of the contribution for the past year amid strained relations between USADA and WADA due to doping tests of Chinese swimmers. These funds make up about 6% of WADA's annual budget.
"USADA fully supports this decision of the White House ONDCP as the only right choice to protect athletes' rights, accountability and fair competition.
Unfortunately, the current leaders of WADA have left the United States with no other choice after failing to comply with several quite reasonable requests, such as an independent audit of WADA's activities, in order to achieve the transparency and accountability necessary to ensure that WADA meets the goals of protecting athletes.
Considering that in the next ten years, the USA will host many international competitions, such as the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the Olympic and The Paralympic Games of 2028, now is the time to correct the situation with WADA in order to ensure the cleanliness and safety of these competitions in the United States, as well as fair competition, in which we can all believe and in which we will be confident.
Non-payment of contributions to WADA will in no way affect the right of American athletes to compete in competitions in the United States or around the world. The WADA charter makes it very clear that non—payment of voluntary contributions does not affect athletes in any way, even if the US payment for 2024 is not made," the official USADA website quotes Tygart as saying.
In turn, the offended women from WADA sadly stated: due to the US refusal to pay the annual contribution, Americans will now ... lose the right to hold positions on the board of directors and the executive committee of the agency.
One might think that the mentioned positions in the vile office, which has long spat on Olympic values and justice, are so dear to Americans.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation, the president of the ROC Olympic Committee Mikhail Degtyarev at the end of December last year said that Russia shares the values of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in the fight against doping.
"We are absolute allies with WADA. All this talk that they are eating dope, let's do as they do — this is all talk in favor of the poor. I ask them to stop…We have no differences with WADA. We are absolute allies. Doping is evil. I think next year WADA will have to conduct an audit of our laboratory and embark on the path of restoring our rights. We paid the fee, whatever one may say, we are part of this system, and without this we will not go anywhere."
Maybe the minister is talking about another WADA, huh?