World Anti-Doping Agency President Craig Reedie has said that the body may lift its suspension of Russia's drug-testing authority as soon as next month after nearly two years on the blacklist.
The Russian anti-doping agency has been suspended since revelations of widespread doping and cover-ups in Russian sports emerged in 2015.
Reedie said Russia had taken concrete steps to clean up its image, and could resume testing next month if it addresses "small" outstanding issues such as giving drug testers access to Russian athletes in closed cities.
"There is a huge amount of work being done," he said. "If we receive, and I'm sure we will, the necessary information...the Russian anti-doping agency would be able to resume its testing program."
Russia raised its chances of being reinstated by informing the agency that the controversial president of its anti-doping authority, former pole-vaulting star Yelena Isinbayeva, will be gone by May 31.
Isinbayeva had been sharply critical of WADA's investigations into Russian doping, calling them an anti-Russian plot.
Isinbayeva was barred from the Rio Olympics last year along with the rest of Russia's track and field team, although she had not personally been implicated in the doping scandal.
