Yuriy Ganus (Ю́рий Га́нус), Director of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), has alleged that its Charter has been changed in order to prevent his deputy, Margarita Pakhnotskaya (Маргарита Пахноцкая) from taking over his position. “At the meeting [of the RUSADA Supervisory Board, which recommended his dismissal], it was decided to change the Charter, so that the Deputy Director cannot take the position of Director General if I am removed”, he said in a YouTube interview, reported Championat.

Глава РУСАДА Ганус назвал вредительством рекомендацию набсовета уволить его https://t.co/YOEHIznPsf

— Yuriy Ganus (@GanusYuriy) August 6, 2020

Article 8.4 of RUSADA’s 2017 Charter mandates that the Director General is accountable to the RUSADA Supervisory Board. Article 8.7 mandates that his four year contact (Ganus was appointed in 2017) may be terminated early in cases of misconduct; and Article 8.8 mandates that in cases where this happens, the Supervisory Board will submit for approval candidates for the position of Acting Director General for a six month period.

Alexander Ivlev (Александр Ивлев), Chairman of the Supervisory Board, said this is what would happen. “If this [a vote for Ganus’ removal] happens, a special commission will be formed, consisting of three members of the Supervisory Board, which will carry out certain procedures for the selection of candidates”, he told Russia Today in a news article that has since been amended, but a translated version of the original is available here. “The Supervisory Board will be presented with several candidates of those people who, from the point of view of professionalism, will be able to head the agency. Maybe at first it will be the role of the acting Director General, and then we’ll see.”

It is understood that a final decision on Ganus’ position will be taken at a meeting of RUSADA’s Founders, the Russian Olympic and Paralympic Committees (ROC & RPC). A date for that meeting has yet to be determined. The Supervisory Board made its recommendation that Ganus should be dismissed after discovering financial irregularities via a 55 page audit that it commissioned. Ganus disputes the audit’s findings, which concern RUB110 million (€1.4 million) in financial irregularities, over RUB50 million (€573,500) of which it attributes to him.

Yet it appears he may have got his figures wrong. Ganus initially argued that the audit’s assertion that RUSADA had spent RUB11.3 million (€126,800) on taxi fares in the last two years was incorrect (see right). Yet in a 22 July Open Letter, he clarifies that RUB11.35 million (€130,500) was spent by RUSADA on taxis in 2018 and 2019, but this bill was for RUSADA’s entire staff and was not spent by him alone, as the audit claims.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said that it would ‘seek further clarification from the Russian authorities’ on the Supervisory Board’s recommendation in a statement issued on Wednesday. “I have not received a request from WADA to clarify the situation with RUSADA”, said Oleg Matytsin (Олег Матыцин), Russia’s Minister of Sports, in a press conference yesterday, reports RSport.