Russia's Deputy Sports Minister Andrey Fedorov told the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture and Sports in Moscow that the country was being unfairly targetted by WADA President Witold Bańka even after a suspension on the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) expired last month.

Russia was banned from international sports in December 2019 after it was found guilty of trying to cover up the earlier state-sponsored doping scandal, including through the manipulation of test samples and efforts to block access to testing its data, launched for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The punishment, initially for four years, barred Russia from entering teams in international competitions and from bidding for or hosting them.

A year later, the ban was reduced to two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The ban on RUSADA finished on December 17 last year, but Bańka had warned the organisation still remained "non-compliant" and its suspension would not be lifted until a number of issues were resolved.

These included the 2021 World Anti-Doping Code not being fully integrated into Russian law.

"The Ministry of Sports considers Bańka’s statements against RUSADA to be discriminatory," Fedorov told the State Duma Committee, Russia’s official state news agency TASS reported.

"Changes in national legislation in no way depend on RUSADA.

"This is a discriminatory approach."

RUSADA director general Veronika Loginova told the State Duma Committee that they had written to WADA about the situation.

"This is very important for us, the sanctions that were in effect are no longer there," Loginova told the Committee, according to TASS.

"But since a discrepancy has been revealed, unfortunately, this can lead to new consequences.

"We have not yet been restored, RUSADA does not agree with the position of WADA, we told them about it."

WADA claimed that RUSADA were made aware of what needed to happen for its reinstatement before the suspension ended.

"The process of assessing whether RUSADA has fulfilled the conditions of reinstatement as per the Court of Arbitration for Sport decision of December 2020 was clearly articulated by WADA in November 2022," a spokesman told insidethegames.

"Once the two-year period covered by the CAS decision elapsed on 17 December 2022, WADA management began that process.

"When WADA management considers that all conditions have been met, it will refer the matter to the independent Compliance Review Committee (CRC) for its review.

"Following that review, if the CRC agrees with WADA management that the conditions have been met, it will make a recommendation to the WADA Executive Committee.

"At every stage, WADA has followed due process in line with the CAS decision and the World Anti-Doping Code, and it will continue to do so."

A potential new problem for the restoration of RUSADA could be the case involving Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva.

The teenager was effectively cleared of a doping offence by a RUSADA Disciplinary Committee in a controversial ruling that would allow the Russian Olympic Committee to keep the gold medals they won in the team event at Beijing 2022.

But WADA, supported by the International Olympic Committee and International Skating Union, plan to appeal against the decision at CAS unless RUSADA overturn it.