Sun, Nov 19, 2017 page10

• Whistle-blower should be executed: Russian official

  • The Guardian
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  A top Russian Olympic official has said Grigory Rodchenkov, the whistle-blower who alleged the country ran a systematic doping program, should be executed.

  “Rodchenkov should be shot for lying, like Stalin would have done,” said Leonid Tyagachev, who was the head of the Russian Olympic Committee from 2001 to 2010 and remains its honorary president.

  He made the remarks in an interview with a Russian radio station.

  Rodchenkov was head of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory between 2005 and 2015, and caused a sensation last year when he claimed that he had helped dozens of Russian athletes in a state-sponsored doping system that ran “like a Swiss watch.”

  He fed athletes cocktails of banned drugs dissolved in whisky or vermouth, he said.

  Rodchenkov claimed that agents from the Russian Federal Security Service helped anti-doping experts switch drug-tainted urine samples for clean samples to fool testers, having found a way to break into bottles designed to be tamperproof.

  The revelations tainted Russia’s performance at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, where it topped the medals table with 33 medals, including 13 golds.

  Two investigations commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) revealed widespread state-sponsored doping in Russia, and the International Olympic Committee is to decide next month on whether Russian athletes can compete at the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea.

  Rodchenkov has reportedly provided further evidence to investigators about the state-sponsored nature of the program.

  Earlier this week, WADA said it would not reinstate the Russian anti-doping agency’s rights to operate, as Russia had not yet fulfilled the demands made of it, including publicly admitting to the state-run nature of the program.

  Russian authorities have opened an investigation against Rodchenkov and have portrayed him as a rogue figure, not part of a state-directed program.

  Last week, a Russian TV channel spoke with two Russian athletes who admitted to taking banned substances provided by Rodchenkov, but the report painted him as an out-of-control maverick.

  Officials, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, have made similar statements, admitting problems with doping, but calling claims of a state-sponsored program anti-Russian smears.

  Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Rodchenkov’s allegations “slander by a turncoat.”

  Tyagachev said that Russian sport had proved it is clean and that if the committee made unrealistic demands, then Russia would simply boycott the Olympics.

  “We are a strong enough country and we have shown the world how great we are in sport. It all shows that we are decent people on the right path and if people try to offend us unjustly, we don’t need them and we don’t need their Olympics. We are not going to beg on our knees,” Tyagachev said.

  Tyagachev’s call for Rodchenkov to be shot sounds extra chilling in light of the unexplained deaths of two of his colleagues.

  Former Russian Anti-Doping Agency executive director Nikita Kamayev died in February last year from an apparent heart attack. He was 52 and had not complained of heart problems. He had reportedly contacted a journalist shortly before his death, offering to speak out about Russian doping.

  Vyacheslav Sinev, the agency’s general director between 2008 and 2010, died of unknown causes in the same month.
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