Russian President Vladimir Putin said that sport has become an instrument of geopolitical pressure” after a damning report prompted the World anti-doping Agency (WADA) to appeal to an almost complete ban on the participation of Russian athletes in the Olympic games in 2016.
— We are now seeing the threat of the recurrence of political interference in sport. Yes, such intervention has changed, but the essence is the same: make sports an instrument of geopolitical pressure… in 1980 over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, boycotted the Olympic games in Moscow in 1980 and 1984 the Soviet Union responded by boycotting the Games in Los Angeles, says Putin’s statement, published Monday on the website of the President of Russia.
The President’s statement came after an independent report to WADA, in which the organization came to the conclusion that the Ministry of sports of Russia oversaw an extensive program of substitution of results of doping tests from 2011 to 2015. It is incomprehensible that the Minister of sport Vitaly Mutko did not know about the effort to conceal the positive results for doping, said Monday the report’s author, Richard McLaren at a press conference in Toronto. His study showed that positive samples of athletes for doping were manipulated during the winter Olympics 2014 in Sochi.
Report Putin plunged into confusion, personally oversaw preparations for the Sochi games, which cost $50 billion — the most expensive in Olympic history. The Russian team of athletes already barred from international matches because of problems with doping. On Sunday, American newspaper the New York Times reported that anti-doping officials, at least 10 countries, including the US, plan to demand the suspension of the Russian delegation from participation in the games in Rio de Janeiro, which will start on 5 August.
Substitution samples
The Ministry of sports was directed, controlled and watched by the manipulation of the results of the analysis of athletes or substitution of the samples, with the active participation and assistance of the FSB and other structures, ” said McLaren.
Recall that the FSB, or Federal security service is the main successor to the KGB of the Soviet era.
— Officials named in the report of the Commission as the direct perpetrators will be suspended from office until completion of the investigation, — Putin said.
WADA proposed to ban all athletes who presented to the Olympic Committee and Paralympic Committee of Russia, to participate in competitions in Rio, limiting the participation of those Russians who will compete under a neutral flag and “very strict criteria”, says posted on its web site the statement. She also urged the Russian government to remove officials from international competition, including summer Olympic games.
Despite the fact that WADA is not mandated to make such decisions on her own, she “expressed the hope that all responsible entities will fulfill their direct duties.”
Convicted athletes
The Ministry of sports and the Russian Olympic Committee did not immediately respond to telephone calls seeking comment on the situation. Recall that shortly after the Olympics in Sochi Putin awarded Mutko and other main organizers of the medals “For merits before Fatherland”.
The international Olympic Committee is planning to hold a conference call to discuss the reaction to the report, said in a statement emailed statement. In the report of the McLaren does not say on any recommendations.
He said that forensic examination and analysis of his team confirmed the testimony of Gregory Rodchenkov, the former head of the Russian anti-doping Agency, and proved that the officers no doubt protected who doping athletes. The Moscow lab was falsely reported on the positive samples, and the FSB used the scheme of substitution of bottles of urine during the Olympic games in Sochi, the report said McLaren.
These methods were developed after the Russian athletes won only three gold medals at the Olympics in Vancouver 2010 and took 11 th place in the medals table — the worst rate in the country after the collapse of the Soviet Union. At the Olympics in Sochi, Russia took first place in the overall standings, winning 33 medals, 13 of them gold. At these games, some prize-winners have been caught doping, have been reported during the last press conference.
