Sir Craig Reedie: I can categorically state I have not been soft on Russia – Wada can lead the fight against doping

Yes I’m now under pressure, but I want to see this through

The pitbull approach: Dick Pound, chairman of the Wada independent commission (Getty Images)

There have been critics of the World Anti-Doping Agency, and critics of me, and first and foremost I don’t want people to think I’m too political or too soft.

I’ve faced criticism and some of that stems from the unfortunate leak of a private piece of correspondence I had with the Russian Ministry of Sport.

For all that was said, I can categorically state I have not been soft on Russia. It was me as president of Wada that agreed with several national anti-doping organisations to create an independent commission to look into the subject of doping in Russia, the results of which we saw in all its damning detail in Geneva on Monday.

The chairman of the commission, Dick Pound, as the first Wada president has earned himself something of a reputation as a bit of a pitbull as that’s just the approach that was needed to start this organisation 16 years ago.

The first thing he had to do was to get everyone singing from the same hymn sheet and for a new organisation to get credibility and success he had to be very definite in his approach. His legal background helped in that regard.

Since then, the whole organisation has moved on and I believe it is doing – and has done – a good job and deserves credit for the establishing of that commission, which has come out with a frankly outstanding piece of work.

The commission was entirely independent, as it should be, and understandably Wada itself comes in for recommendations in its report.

Despite those points, I very much believe that Wada is the right organisation to lead the fight against doping and I am happy to be at the head of that fight. I was more than happy to take on this job and, yes I’m under pressure, but I want to see this through.

We have already been quick in taking action in response to the report by immediately provisionally suspending accreditation for the Moscow laboratory, one of the key recommendations by Dick and his co-authors Richard McLaren and Günter Younger.

What happened in that laboratory is completely unacceptable and it completely breaks the whole system.

There are other things which the 323-page report clearly stated that we can do better. Number one in all that is that we need to be firmer in terms of the compliance of national anti-doping organisations and/or sports. That’s the message.

What I would say – and it’s an oft-repeated refrain – is that we need more revenue to do the job properly. We need governments to dip into their pockets and for the International Olympic Committee to match that funding.

How much do we need to beat the cheats? That’s a bit like asking how much money does the National Health Service need. But the more money available, the more we can do.

Is there a sense that things could get worse before they get better? Quite possibly. We still await further revelations from the commission and, because of its independence, I genuinely have no idea what those revelations will be.

One aspect focuses on the criminal activities revealed by the investigation, which have since been passed on to Interpol and are being dealt with by the French authorities.

The second issue is that of the leaked blood readings that came out in the summer, and the question of whether the International Association of Athletics Federations dealt with that adequately. As for the outcome of that, we’ll find out before the end of the year.

As far Wada is concerned, we meet in Colorado Springs next week with much to discuss but with the message that what has gone on is totally unacceptable and to the cheats that we will catch you.