FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sanctions applied to Belarus Federation
The World Athletics Council agreed today (10) to apply sanctions on the
Belarus Athletic Federation while Russia's war on Ukraine, aided and
abetted by Belarus, continues.
These sanctions include:
- No hosting of any international or European athletics events, which
includes World Athletics Series, one-day meetings and other international
competitions;
- No representation at Congress or in decisions which require Congressional
votes;
- No accreditation to attend any World Athletics Series events, including
the World Athletics Indoor Championships Belgrade 22 and the World
Athletics Championships Oregon22;
- No involvement of Federation personnel in any official World Athletics
development or professional programmes.
These sanctions will take immediate effect and continue for the foreseeable
future.
Our one-day meetings and tours are discussing the exclusion of Russian
Authorised Neutral Athletes (ANA) and Belarusian athletes from their
meetings ahead of their events beginning in the next couple of months.
World Athletics is confident that these meetings will adopt the same
approach that the World Athletics Council has taken.
Russian Taskforce
The Council approved three recommendations from the Russia Taskforce in
regard to the Russian reinstatement process.
Taskforce chairman Rune Andersen acknowledged that the Russian invasion of
Ukraine had "cast a shadow" over the whole of Russia, including sport. But
the Taskforce recommended that the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF)
reinstatement process should continue, to avoid the "very real risk" that
RusAF would revert to past doping practices if the process was suspended
now.
"Such a loss and backsliding would undermine that cultural change that
RusAF has been cultivating and ultimately be detrimental to the interests
of clean Russian athletes, the athletes in other countries with whom they
compete, and therefore the integrity of future international competitions,"
Andersen's report explains.
Andersen told the Council that RusAF had made significant progress in many
areas described in the roadmap, but that it was not yet fit for
reinstatement.
Concerns remained around the leadership of RUSADA, Russia's national
anti-doping agency, and the fact that RusAF had not yet paid the
reinstatement costs incurred by World Athletics for the third and fourth
quarters of 2021.
Andersen warned that if payment was not made as a matter of urgency, this
would be regarded as a breach of the reinstatement conditions and would
lead to action against RusAF, which could include a suspension of the
reinstatement process.
He further acknowledged that restricted travel, due to the invasion, would
create challenges for the Taskforce in its oversight and monitoring role,
which could lead to changes in the way it operates.
The Council accepted the following recommendations from the Taskforce:
1. The Taskforce continues its oversight and monitoring of RusAF's
implementation of the Reinstatement Plan and KPIs, guided to the extent
possible in current circumstances by the international experts. The
Taskforce shall report on its work to Council at its next meeting in July
2022 or, if required, earlier.
2. The Taskforce meet with RusAF to discuss progress against the
Reinstatement Plan based on the KPIs, to assess and, if necessary, update
the Reinstatement Plan and the KPIs, and possibly discuss and/or agree a
specific timeline for consideration of reinstatement.
3. The Taskforce review the Post-Reinstatement Conditions including the
RusAF's feedback on them and present them to the Council at its next
meeting in July 2022 for approval and/or discussion, as the Taskforce deems
appropriate at that time.
Andersen cautioned that presenting the post-reinstatement conditions to
Council for approval in July did not mean that the Taskforce would
recommend RusAF be reinstated at that time. He said any consideration of
reinstatement would be "subject to further discussions".
The full Taskforce Report can be found here.
Other decisions made during the Council meeting will be shared in the
coming days.
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