Basketball player Nikita Kurbanov received a three-month suspension for cocaine

Former captain of the CSKA basketball club Nikita Kurbanov was caught using cocaine. The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) announced this on Thursday. It is noteworthy that the RUSADA statement says that Kurbanov is disqualified for only three months and will be able to return to sports activities on January 19. Typically, doping violations, even those committed for the first time, are punished much more severely. However, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) code has a clause that allows the base four-year period of ineligibility to be reduced to three months. This is exactly what RUSADA took advantage of.

On Thursday, an explanation was finally found for the sudden disappearance from the sports arena of the captain of basketball CSKA – the most titled club in Russia and one of the most titled clubs in Europe – Nikita Kurbanov. He was caught using illegal substances, namely cocaine.

Mr. Kurbanov disappeared from CSKA at the end of October last year, that is, after the start of the regular season of the VTB United League. The club announced the suspension of the basketball player’s career, noting that Kurbanov’s decision was dictated by certain “personal reasons.” CSKA then declined to comment further.

However, as follows from RUSADA’s statement released on Thursday, the problem was different. It said the player’s test revealed a “prohibited substance of class S6a (cocaine).” Also in the RUSADA statement it is noted that Nikita Kurbanov is given a disqualification for three months “from January 10, 2024, with credit for the time served for the temporary suspension, namely from October 20, 2023. The disqualification will end on January 19, 2024.”

In other words, Nikita Kurbanov was caught using cocaine just at the end of October, but now he can return to the army’s ranks this coming Sunday.

On this day, CSKA will play with Uralmash.

CSKA itself, as follows from his statement, is still thinking about whether to return the authoritative big man to the squad or not. “CSKA has always been and will be an opponent of the use of prohibited substances and condemned all types of their use. For any purpose. To whomever it may concern. We provided RUSADA with full assistance in the investigation. Before receiving the final verdict, we had no right to comment on the situation and discuss possible actions of the club. Today, like everyone else, we saw the official document, and we need time to discuss the situation inside the club, with sponsors and founders, and then make an informed decision about the future of Nikita Kurbanov in CSKA,” says CSKA President Andrei Vatutin in a statement released to the public on the army club website. “Nikita is our comrade. It’s not easy for him right now. He made a mistake, he let down the club, his teammates and fans, this is a lesson for all basketball players and athletes in general, we condemn him, and for what he did he received a well-deserved punishment,” continues Mr. Vatutin. “But at the same time, I would like to note that Nikita gave all his impressive career was and remains a model of work ethic. Nikita is a person you can rely on in the most difficult moments. This is our legend. I have no doubt that what happened will become additional motivation for Nikita to become better and correct her reputation. On or off the court, it doesn’t matter at the moment.”

According to estimates TASSKurbanov became the seventh Russian athlete in the last ten years to be disqualified for cocaine use.

Previously, after the drug was discovered in doping tests, hockey players Evgeny Kuznetsov, Kirill Dyakov and Ilya Altybarmakyan, volleyball player Pavel Moroz, handball player Dmitry Kiselev and wrestler Dzhambulat Ustaev were suspended from sports.

But what is noteworthy here is the difference in the application of anti-doping rules depending on the situation. Let’s say the mentioned hockey player Kuznetsov was disqualified for four years (the standard punishment for the first case of violating WADA regulations), after a sample taken from him at the 2019 World Championships gave a positive result (this, however, did not prevent him from continuing to play for the club National Hockey League Washington Capitals – the disqualification only affected his performances for the national team). And Nikita Kurbanov received only three months for the same cocaine.

It’s all in Art. 10.2.4.1 of the WADA Code, on which the RUSADA decision is based. It states that if an athlete proves that the use of a prohibited drug occurred out of competition and “was not associated with obtaining an athletic advantage,” then “the period of ineligibility is three months.”

And if you undergo some kind of rehabilitation, then even a month. Note that the VTB United League championship, in which CSKA plays, started on September 30 last year. How Mr. Kurbanov proved that he used cocaine exclusively before this date is unknown.

Alexander Petrov