WADA has set a three-week deadline for RUSADA and the Russian Sports Ministry to "provide their comments, together with answers to a list of specific questions" following suggestions the data has been tampered with. They will be expected to address the reasons behind differences between the Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) database conveniently provided by a "whistleblower" in October 2017, and the authentic version WADA definitively extracted from the facility in January. Compliance Review Committee chairman Jonathan Taylor said a team of forensic experts could not find an "innocent reason" for the discrepancies, Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov addressed the WADA issues: "What, exactly, these inconsistencies are and what they are related to, that will be cleared up by experts in the field of digital technology from both sides, who are already cooperating,” Kolobkov said. “From our side, we will continue to offer all possible assistance.”
"I don’t think this working process should be politicized, as, say, the Western media, which are in the habit of publishing anti-Russian articles, are now doing. They have always vigorously attacked Russia — suffice it to recall the situation around the FIFA World Cup which was ultimately held in Russia at the highest possible level, despite their criticism. So, I would repeat, it is a working process and only those who are obsessed with this idea see politics behind it," Valery Gazzaev, who is deputy chairman of the committee for physical culture, sports, tourism and youth affairs of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house,
"RUSADA’s status has been reinstated. It provided the original database of doping samples of Russian athletes from the Moscow laboratory to WADA. The condition of the database integrity verification was known from the beginning. If WADA has any questions, the Russian side has time to answer them," he noted. "I hope all the disputable matters will be settled in due time, and a fair decision on RUSADA will follow,"
WADA Head Reedie: “We don’t know yet whether there was a fake or data manipulation, or what it could be at all."
https://tass.ru/sport/6917743https://tass.ru/sport/6917570