"Russia will use all means available to her to defend its athletes against evidence-free accusations," said Press Secretary for the Russian President, Dmitry Peskov. 19 of our athletes are suspended from the Olympics and Russia lost 11 medals won in Sochi. All due to scratches on test-tubes and the testimony of WADA-informant Grigory Rodchenkov. Meanwhile, the Russian investigative committee has proof that Rodchenkov himself was distributing questionable medicine in Russia, as well as forging test results from the Moscow anti-doping center.
Reporting, Anton Lyadov.
It's hard to find the right words when your silver medal has been withdrawn. Biathlonist Yana Romanova declared she wouldn't return her prize without a fair trial. She'd rather throw it in a dumpster.
Yana Romanova, biathlonist: "Under no circumstances will I return my medal because I think the decision was not fair. In fact, they have nothing to charge me with."
That's not fair indeed. Today, the Olympic Committee published a document, explaining why the Russian athletes get disqualified and their medals withdrawn. 50 pages in fine print — charges against Russian athlete Alexander Legkov. There isn't a single piece of direct evidence. The only proof is the journal of Grigory Rodchenkov, the ex-head of the Anti-Doping Laboratory that fled to the US, where he made notes every time Russian athletes were using steroids. Of course, not a single page of the "concrete evidence" is attached. The story of Legkov taking steroids is full of inconsistencies.
Lines from the document: "Dr. Rodchenkov specifically recollects an instance of swapping samples collected from an athlete during the night following his victory".
A year ago, the Agency claimed no-one pre-opened the test-tubes.
Richard McLaren, head of WADA: "No-one saw Russians open the test-tubes."
WADA's list has a certain "Duchess-list", a list of athletes that need to be covered for using doping. The list happens to be quite different.
Grigory Krotov, Moscow Anti-Doping Center: "The "Duchess-list" has nothing to do with doping it's the names of athletes we expected to get medals. Rodchenkov simply renamed our list to "Duchess". He's using it to forge evidence of a state program that's never existed".
year and a half, Rodchenkov has been trying to persuade the world that he served Russian athletes stimulants in whiskey and martini glasses. It's still unclear why he's doing it.
Grigory Krotov: "Alcohol can't conceal the traces of doping. That's laughable. Rodchenkov's cocktails are steroids whose structure is different from the ones we generate internally and drinking alcohol won't help conceal them".
Another proof — the scratched test-tubes. The scratches have allegedly appeared after the tubes were lock-picked. An inconsistency once again!
A line from the same document: "The A-Samples were analyzed during the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi by the WADA-accredited laboratory in Sochi. Such analytical analysis did not result in an adverse analytical finding at that time".
So when the WADA was accepting the tubes with signed acknowledgments after the Olympics, there were no scratches? That's what disqualified skeleton racer Sergey Chudinov told us after consulting Oswald, a WADA attorney.
Sergey Chudinov, skeleton racer: "Oswald told us the tubes weren't scratched or pre-opened that we had no trace of steroids in our urine and wished us luck at the next Olympics... and three days later disqualified us".
Dmitry Trunenkov, bobsledder:
- They showed us no evidence."
- Some athletes say they won't give up their medals.
- Let them come and take them. I'm waiting for them.
Besides, international experts were present at the Olympics at all times. Could they allow these sorts of heavy shenanigans happen under their supervision? That's how it goes. This footage is from the doping-probe room. We filmed it right before the Russian Track and Field Championship.
An officer is watching the athlete's every move. Toilets have mirrors on every wall. In case someone tries to replace it with some substance they prepared in advance it will be instantly noticed and the athlete will be prosecuted.
While the officials threaten to disqualify the whole Russian team at the Korean Olympics many foreign athletes are urging them to restore justice to the competition. For example the hockey federations of Canada, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Finland, and Sweden have sent a message asking the officials to admit the Russian team to the Olympics. Russian fans have started a flashmob on the Internet: #norussiannogames.
Anton Lyadov, Anna Kolk Anna Mitrokhina, and Ilgiz Hakimov Vesti.
