Russia could face a ban from all major sports events over “discrepancies” in a lab database, the World Anti-Doping Agency has warned.
The country has been given three weeks to explain “inconsistencies” or risk being excluded from the Olympics and world championships.
Russia also faces being barred from hosting major events.
“There’s evidence this data has been deleted,” chairman of Wada’s compliance panel, Jonathan Taylor, told BBC Sport.
“We need to understand from the Russian authorities what their explanation is.”
Russia handed over data from its Moscow laboratory in January as a condition of its reintegration back into the sporting fold after a three-year suspension for a state-sponsored doping programme.
But on Monday Wada said its executive committee had been informed that a formal compliance procedure had been opened over the discovery of “inconsistencies”.
“This is hypothetical at the moment, but if the experts maintain their current view, then the compliance review committee will make a recommendation to send a notice to Rusada asserting ‘you’re non-compliant’ and proposing consequences,” said Taylor.
“In a case with a ‘critical non-compliance’, there is now a starting point for the sanctions that can go up and down, and they do include sanctions against Rusada and options include no events hosted in Russia, and they do include no participation of Russian athletes in world championships and up to the Olympics.”
Taylor emphasised that under a new set of rules, Wada now has the power to apply such punishments, but also explained that if Russia were to appeal, the case would ultimately be decided by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas).
BBC
