'Lynch Mob': Ex-WADA Chief Slams Critics of Agency Amid RUSADA's Deadline Issue

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Former World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) President Richard Pound has referred to those criticizing the agency as a "lynch mob" after the failure to extract Moscow anti-doping agency data by 31 December.

"Much of the response to Russia's failure to provide access to the former Moscow laboratory data by the deadline imposed by the World Anti-Doping Agency's Executive Committee in September 2018 has all the elements of a lynch mob", Pound said in an exclusive blog post for Insidethegames website.

On 20 September, the WADA Executive Committee voted to reinstate the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) as compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code following a doping scandal. The agency required Russia to provide access to the data and samples of Moscow anti-doping laboratory by 31 December 2018.

The WADA mission, led by independent expert Jose Antonio Pascual, arrived in Moscow in December but did not manage to complete the task in time, mostly because of the issues related to the equipment used to extract the information, which must have been certified in accordance with the Russian legislation.

READ MORE: WADA VP Calls for Immediate Meeting on Russian Anti-Doping Agency's Status

WADA said on 1 January that Russia had not provided it with access to the Moscow laboratory data by the set deadline. The agency said that the Compliance Review Committee (CRC) would present recommendations to the WADA Executive Committee on the situation with RUSADA after a meeting in mid-January.

A number of national anti-doping agencies as well as WADA's Athlete Committee and the Athletes' Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has called on WADA to take urgent action against RUSADA.

READ MORE: WADA Athlete Committee Calls for Russian Anti-Doping Agency to Be Banned