It was announced that WADA's Executive Committee voted yesterday to endorse an earlier decision to strip the facility in the Russian capital of its approved status to carry out blood testing for the athlete biological passport (ABP).

ABP is designed to monitor different biological components that reveal doping over time. 

It is alleged that the incident is related to data extracted in 2019, which at the time was located on servers and laboratory and sealed off by the Russian authorities. 

WADA wanted to examine the data to prosecute cases allegedly covered up in the past.

The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) has denied data stored at the laboratory was altered deliberately.

The Moscow Laboratory has been provisionally suspended since January 2020 and is unable to accept new samples. 

WADA President Witold Bańka imposed the provisional suspension at the time after a recommendation from the organisation's Laboratory Expert Advisory Group.

The accreditation of the Moscow Laboratory had been revoked when allegations of state-sponsored doping emerged in November 2015, but it was allowed to resume analysis of blood samples by WADA the following May.

After being reinstated in 2018 following its suspension in 2015, RUSADA was again declared non-compliant by WADA in December 2019 after the country was found to have manipulated data at the Moscow Laboratory.

WADA initially imposed a four-year set of sanctions on Russia, including its name, flag and anthem being banned from World Championship and Olympic events and the country being prohibited from bidding to host such competitions.

These sanctions were reduced to two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in December 2020.

Russian athletes competed at the Tokyo 2020 under the ROC (Russian Olympic Committee) banner at the Olympics and RPC (Russian Paralympic Committee) at the Paralympics, and will do so again at Beijing 2022. 

Proceedings against the Moscow Laboratory resumed in January 2021 following the conclusion of the CAS case, and the WADA Disciplinary Committee found the manipulation of data was "detrimental to the anti-doping programme" and "a serious violation which justified revocation".

The Moscow Laboratory has 21 days to appeal to CAS against the decision.

The decision follows a turbulent week for RUSADA, with its Supervisory Board undergoing a major reshuffle as chairman Tamara Shashikhina, Sergei Ryazansky and Anatoly Kucherena all left their positions.

Existing member Natalya Sokolova became the new chairman, while Alexander Yakushev, Evgeny Achkasov and Evgeny Rashchevsky joined the Supervisory Board.

According Russia's official news agency TASS, the acting head of RUSADA Mikhail Bukhanov expressed concerns at the legitimacy of these changes, although general assembly secretary Yelena Spiridonova claimed WADA was informed of the procedure.

WADA admitted it was "concerned with the sudden resignations of three Supervisory Board members, including the chair".

The agency added: "We are in communication with the founders of RUSADA and have requested further information on the three new members, including the process followed to appoint them, in order to conduct a thorough assessment of the situation."

WADA told insidethegames the revocation of the Moscow Laboratory's status is "unrelated" to this week's changes at RUSADA.