beijing russia should not assume sanctions imposed for running a state sponsored doping programme will be automatically lifted when its suspension is completed at the end of year the head of the world antidoping agency wada said on wednesdayfor the third consecutive olympics russian athletes will participate as neutrals at the beijing winter games barred from competing under their own flag and wada president witold banka did not rule out the possibility of that ban continuingrussias antidoping agency rusada was ruled noncompliant by wada in 2015 after a report found evidence of mass doping in russian athleticswada announced sanctions on russia in december 2019 that among other things barred it from flying its flag at major sporting events for a fouryear periodthe sanctions which were halved by the court of arbitration for sport cas came into effect only in december 2020 after a russia appeal and are set to end on december 16 this yeari think it is too early to say i am happy and the chapter is closed lets wait this is an ongoing process banka told reuters following a news briefing in beijingthe rules are clear rusada needs to follow the rules the requirements and standardsso far they are doing it we are in close contact with them they strictly follow our rules but as i said this is an ongoing process this is not the end of this chapterat the end of the year we will need to say yes rusada can be compliant it is not the end of this process it is too early to say definitely that they are compliantthe russian delegation in beijing which includes 212 athletes cannot display the countrys tricolour flag or any national emblems or symbols or have their national anthem played during medal presentationstheir uniforms bear the logo of the russian olympic committee three flames in the colours of the national flag with the olympic rings below them instead of russias flagrussian athletes were also the most tested going into the games with the international testing agency itasaying a number of factors determined the pregames doping risk assessment including their doping track record the size of the team and their medal prospectsrussia received the most pregames testing recommendations ita director general benjamin cohen told reporters on wednesday they were followed by germany the united states canada and norway all five countries are winter sports powerhousesrussia has acknowledged shortcomings in its implementation of antidoping rules but denies running a statesponsored doping programmerusada needs to follow the rules banka added now it is an ongoing process and too early to say there will be concrete results but the rules are very strictif rusada wants to be compliant it has to follow the rules from the cas decision and of course our standardswe are in touch with rusada and lets wait for the end of the year