Ivanov’s departure weakens the leadership group of an organization which is already suspended by the International Athletics Federation (World Athletics) due to an institutionalized doping scandal in Russia.
RUSAF has indicated that Ivanov will officially retain his title of president, but will step down from his post by December 2022. That is, when the sanctions imposed on Russian sports leaders by the Court of Arbitration for Sport ( TAS) will be lifted.
Irina Privalova will take over from Ivanov on a temporary basis. She won an Olympic gold medal in the 400m hurdles event at the Sydney Games in 2000.
The CAS prohibits representatives of the Russian government from occupying managerial positions in the country’s sports federations. President Putin’s cabinet appointed Ivanov deputy director of the Competition Bureau in January, a month after the CAS decision.
Ivanov was elected president of RUSAF on November 30 for a four-year term. He was to pilot a reform program within the organization that would allow him to be spared the sanctions in force since 2015 in connection with the state doping scandal.
The RUSAF has until March 1 to submit an anti-doping plan since its initial version was described as seriously incomplete
by World Athletics last September.
If the plan is not adopted quickly, Russian athletes, who are set to operate under a neutral banner, could be denied access to the European Indoor Athletics Championships in March in Poland.
The Russian Athletics Federation has been without a president for most of 2020 following Dmitry Shlyakhtin’s resignation in November 2019. He faced disciplinary action for undermining an investigation that sought to determine why a Russian athlete had not taken a doping test.
Russian businessman Yevgeny Yurchenko replaced him in February 2020, but resigned in July of the same year due to RUSAF’s financial problems.
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