The decision to cut Russia's international competition ban to two years for manipulating drug-testing data is "not comprehensively explained" in the Court of Arbitration for Sport judgement, the World Anti-Doping Agency says.
WADA had pushed for a four-year ban in relation to the breach of its code, but a CAS panel halved that suspension last month. That move was heavily criticised by the American and UK anti-doping agencies, among others.
The full decision, or award, was published on Thursday, and afterwards WADA released its own legal statement.
"With respect to the seriousness of the non-compliance in this case, the (CAS) panel was - for reasons that are not comprehensively explained in the award - not willing to endorse the full suite of consequences recommended by (WADA) ... which WADA believes were proportionate and reasonable," the statement said.
"In other words, based on its own assessment of proportionality, the panel considered that the legitimate objectives of WADA could be adequately achieved with lesser consequences."
WADA President Witold Banka said the full CAS decision shows WADA proved its case and "exposed the Russian authorities' brazen attempts to manipulate data from the Moscow Laboratory in an effort to thwart our investigations".
"We remain disappointed, however, that CAS did not agree with all our proposed consequences, which we felt were proportionate to the egregious nature of the offences committed by the Russian authorities as they sought to cover up the details of their institutionalised doping scheme," Banka said in a statement.
The three-person CAS panel found the data, which had been requested as a condition of Russian reinstatement to WADA in 2018, had been manipulated.
Its judgement means Russian teams will not compete at this summer's Olympic or Paralympic Games or other major international events for the next two years.
WADA also expressed concern about CAS' ruling that Russian athletes wishing to compete as neutrals should not have to prove they were not implicated in the manipulation of data. Instead, only athletes prosecuted for anti-doping rule violations would be barred from competing.
WADA said it regretted that finding, and also felt the decision by CAS to make the conditions around neutral athlete uniforms less restrictive was "not explained in any particular detail".
CAS' ruling will allow neutral athletes to still wear uniform containing some or all of the colours of the Russian flag, and to feature the word 'Russia' so long as the words 'Neutral Athlete' are given equal or greater prominence.
The full also decision reveals the defence supplied by Russia's national doping agency, RUSADA, against the sanctions. It argued WADA could not prove it had consented to the 2018 World Anti-Doping Code or the International Standard for Code Compliance for Signatories, and therefore could not be sanctioned.
It also said it had no access to or control over the data at the centre of the case, and could therefore not be liable for the manipulation and deletion that had occurred. CAS dismissed those arguments.
Travis Tygart, the chief executive of the US Anti-Doping Agency, said last month that there was "no consolation in this weak, watered-down outcome" that came after a "sordid Russian state-sponsored doping affair".
Australian Associated Press
