Tatyana Chirkina has been appointed the acting director general of RUSADA ©RUSADA

Tatyana Chirkina has been appointed acting director general of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) until a permanent appointment can be made, it has been announced.

She is already a member of the organisation and has reportedly formerly served as its accountant.

Her elevation was published in a message on the RUSADA website but no further comment has been made by the Agency.

It follows the departure of former director general Anna Antseliovich earlier this month.

An application process for the permanent position is expected to remain open until March 31.

Those applying do not have to be Russian citizens, the TASS news agency report, but they must be able to communicate in the language. 

Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko has claimed, though, the new director general should be a Russian. 

"RUSADA is a national anti-doping organisation and, of course, it should be headed by a Russian," Mutko told Russia's official news agency TASS.

Yelena Isinbayeva is chair of the Supervisory Board of RUSADA ©Getty Images
Yelena Isinbayeva is chair of the Supervisory Board of RUSADA ©Getty Images

The main task of the permanent replacement will be ensuring the "integrity, independence and objectivity" of RUSADA, as well as the "availability of capacity and resources for the protection of the fundamental right to participate in competitions of sportsmen of Russia and other countries, free from doping".

They must also be able to "guarantee the implementation of the agency effective detection programmes, deterrence and prevention of doping."

The organisation remains non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) after evidence that it was involved in a institutional plot to manipulate and tamper with samples given by around 1,000 Russian athletes.

Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov told the WADA Annual Symposium in Lausanne last week that he hopes that RUSADA will have fulfilled all of the compliance criteria by November.

Two-time Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva has already been unveiled as chair of the RUSADA Supervisory Board.

This choice was criticised by WADA.

"The appointment is not consistent with the roadmap established by WADA," they told insidethegames.

"Whilst it is the decision of the Russian authorities to elect its Board members, the Agency shall be passing this information on to its independent Compliance Review Committee for their review."