OREANDA-NEWS. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow will seek from WADA a universal approach to all countries in the fight against doping.

"We will strive for a universal, equal approach to all countries, including within the framework of those conventions on the fight against doping that have been adopted and which have mechanisms for their implementation within the Council of Europe and within UNESCO," TASS quotes Lavrov.

Lavrov noted that WADA is a structure subordinate to the West, since NATO countries and their closest allies occupy the majority of seats on the supervisory board of the organization.

"When Russian meldonium suddenly gets on the lists, and the absolute analogue of the American biochemical does not get on these lists, when all Scandinavian skiers are asthmatic and they can take a prohibited drug as a therapeutic exception, this is immediately visible with the naked eye," Lavrov said.

Earlier that day, the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Vitold Banka said that the majority of American athletes are outside the jurisdiction of WADA. Thus, the National Basketball Association (NBA), National Hockey League (NHL), National Football League (NFL), and other US student and professional leagues do not have signatory status to the World Anti-Doping Code.

In December last year, the Russian government formed a government commission on the International Convention against Doping in Sport. The Commission is designed to inform interested federal authorities about UNESCO's work in the fight against doping in sport.

In September last year, the head of the Ministry of Sports, Oleg Matytsin, said that his department had begun work on the formation of a culture of zero tolerance for doping in all regions of the country.