{"id":76686,"date":"2016-07-25T12:00:37","date_gmt":"2016-07-25T11:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=76686"},"modified":"2016-07-22T16:43:29","modified_gmt":"2016-07-22T15:43:29","slug":"the-olympics-as-a-tool-of-the-new-cold-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/07\/the-olympics-as-a-tool-of-the-new-cold-war\/","title":{"rendered":"The Olympics as a Tool of the New Cold War"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Andrey<\/a>The allegations of systematic state organised doping by the Russian authorities are founded on the evidence of three compromised individuals and have been presented in a way that denies Russian athletes their fundamental rights.<\/em><\/p>\n

21 Jul 2016 – <\/em>The 6th<\/sup> Fundamental Principle of Olympism<\/a> (non-discrimination of any kind, including nationality and political opinion<\/em>) seems to be forgotten long ago.\u00a0 In ancient Greece the competition of best athletes was able to halt a war and serve as a bridge of understanding between two recent foes.\u00a0 But in the twentieth century the Olympics have become a political weapon.\u00a0 Back in 1980 the US and its allies boycotted the games in Moscow as a protest against the Soviet troops that entered Afghanistan at the request of that country\u2019s legitimate government (in contrast, the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany<\/a> were held as usual, to the applause of the \u201ccivilized\u201d world).\"world<\/a><\/p>\n

On May 8, 2016 the CBS program 60 Minutes<\/em> aired a broadcast<\/a> about doping in Russia.\u00a0 The interviews featured recorded conversations between a former staffer with the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), Vitaly Stepanov, and the ex-director of Russia\u2019s anti-doping laboratory in Moscow, Grigory Rodchenkov.\u00a0 That program was just the fourth installment in a lengthy series<\/a> about the alleged existence of a system to support doping in Russian sports.<\/p>\n

A few days later the New York Times<\/em> published<\/a> an interview with Rodchenkov.\u00a0 There that former official claims that a state-supported doping program was active at the Sochi Olympics, and that the orders for that program had come almost directly from the Russian president.<\/p>\n

One important fact that escaped most international observers was that a media campaign, which had begun shortly after the 2014 deep freeze in Russian-Western relations, was constructed around the \u201ctestimonies\u201d of three Russian citizens who were all interconnected and complicit in a string of doping scandals, and who later left Russia and are trying to make new lives in the West.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Yulia<\/a>

Yulia Stepanova n\u00e9e Rusanova<\/p><\/div>\n

A 29-year-old middle-distance runner, Yulia Stepanova<\/strong>, can be seen as the instigator of this scandal. This young athlete\u2019s personal best in global competition was a bronze medal at the European Athletics Indoor Championship in 2011.\u00a0 At the World Championships that same year she placed eighth.\u00a0 Stepanova\u2019s career went off the rails in 2013, when the Russian Athletic Federation\u2019s Anti-Doping Commission disqualified her for two years based on \u201cblood fluctuations in her Athlete Biological Passport.\u201d Such fluctuations are considered evidence of doping.\u00a0 All of Stepanova\u2019s results since 2011 have been invalidated.\u00a0 In addition, she had to return the prize money she had won running in professional races in 2011-2012.\u00a0 Stepanova, who had been suspended for doping, acted as the primary informant for ARD journalist<\/strong> Hajo Seppelt<\/a>,<\/strong> who had begun filming a documentary about misconduct in Russian sports.\u00a0 After the release of ARD\u2019s first documentary in December 2014, Stepanova left Russia along with her husband and son.\u00a0 In 2015 she requested political asylum in Canada.\u00a0 Even after her suspension ended in 2015, Stepanova told the WADA Commission (p.142 of the Nov. 2015 WADA Report<\/a>) that she had tested positive for doping during the Russian Track and Field Championships in Saransk in July 2010 and paid 30,000 rubles (approximately $1,000 USD at that time) to the director of the Russian anti-doping laboratory in Moscow, Gregory Rodchenkov, in exchange for concealing those test results.<\/p>\n

\"Vitaly<\/a>

Vitaly Stepanov<\/p><\/div>\n

Yulia Stepanova\u2019s husband is Vitaly Stepanov<\/strong> a former staffer at RUSADA.\u00a0 He had lived and studied in the US since he was 15, but later decided to return to Russia.\u00a0 In 2008, Vitaly Stepanov began working for RUSADA as a doping-control officer.\u00a0 Vitaly met Yulia Rusanova in 2009 at the Russian national championships in Cheboksary.\u00a0 Stepanov now claims that he sent a letter to WADA detailing his revelations back in 2010, but never received an answer.\u00a0 In 2011 Stepanov left RUSADA. One fact that deserves attention is that Vitaly has confessed that he was fully aware that his wife was taking banned substances, both while he worked for RUSADA as well as after he left that organization. Take note that Stepanova\u2019s blood tests went positive starting in 2011 \u2013 i.e., from the time that her husband, an anti-doping officer, left RUSADA. With a clear conscience, the Stepanovs, now married, accepted prize money from professional races until Yulia was disqualified.\u00a0 Then they no longer had a source of income and the prize money suddenly had to be returned, at which point Vitaly Stepanov sought recourse in foreign journalists, offering to tell them the \u201ctruth about Russian sports.\u201d \u00a0In early June he admitted<\/a> that WADA had not only helped his family move to America, but had also provided them with $30,000 in financial assistance.<\/p>\n

\"Gregory<\/a>

Gregory Rodchenkov<\/p><\/div>\n

And finally, the third figure in the campaign to expose doping in Russian sports \u2013 the former head of the Russian anti-doping laboratory in Moscow, Gregory Rodchenkov<\/strong>.\u00a0 According to Vitaly Stepanov, he was the man who sold performance-enhancing drugs while helping to hide their traces, and had also come up with the idea of \u201cdoped Chivas mouth swishing<\/a>\u201d (pg. 50), a technique that transforms men into Olympic champions.\u00a0 This 57-year-old native of Moscow is acknowledged to be the best at what he does.\u00a0 He graduated from Moscow State University with a Ph.D. in chemistry and began working at the Moscow anti-doping lab as early as 1985.\u00a0 He later worked in Canada and for Russian petrochemical companies, and in 2005 he became the director of Russia\u2019s national anti-doping laboratory in Moscow.\u00a0 In 2013 Marina Rodchenkova<\/strong> \u2013 Gregory Rodchenkov\u2019s sister \u2013 was found guilty and received a sentence for selling anabolic steroids to athletes.\u00a0 Her brother was also the subject of a criminal investigation into charges that he supplied banned drugs.\u00a0 Threatened with prosecution, Gregory Rodchenkov began to behave oddly and was repeatedly hospitalized and \u201csubjected to a forensic psychiatric examination.\u201d \u00a0A finding was later submitted to the court, claiming that Rodchenkov suffered from \u201cschizotypal personality disorder,\u201d exacerbated by stress.\u00a0 As a result, all the charges against Rodchenkov were dropped.\u00a0 But the most surprising thing was that someone with a \u201cschizotypal personality disorder\u201d and a sister convicted of trafficking in performance-enhancing drugs continued as the director of Russia\u2019s only WADA-accredited anti-doping laboratory.\u00a0 In fact, he held this job during the 2014 Olympics.\u00a0 Rodchenkov was not dismissed until the fall of 2015, after the eruption of the scandal that had been instigated by the broadcaster ARD and the Stepanovs.\u00a0 In September 2015 the WADA Commission accused Rodchenkov of intentionally destroying over a thousand samples in order to conceal doping by Russian athletes.\u00a0 He personally denied all the charges, but then resigned and left for the US where he was warmly embraced by filmmaker Bryan Fogel<\/em>, who was shooting yet another made-to-order documentary<\/a> about doping in Russia.<\/p>\n

\"Prof.<\/a>

Prof. Richard H. McLaren<\/p><\/div>\n

As this article is being written, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is studying a report<\/a> \u00a0from an \u201cIndependent Person,\u201d the Canadian professor Richard H. McLaren<\/strong>, who has accused the entire Russian Federation, not just individual athletes, of complicity in the use of performance-enhancing drugs.\u00a0 McLaren was quickly summoned to speak with WADA shortly after the NYT published<\/a> interview with Rodchenkov.\u00a0 The goal was clear: to concoct a \u201cscientific report\u201d by mid-July that would provide the IOC with grounds to ban the Russian team from the Rio Olympics.\u00a0 At a press conference on July 18 McLaren himself acknowledged<\/a> that with a timeline of only 57 days he was unable \u201cto identify any athlete that might have benefited from such manipulation to conceal positive doping tests.\u201d\u00a0 WADA\u2019s logic here is clear \u2013 they need to avoid any accusations of bias, unprofessionalism, embellishment of facts, or political partisanship.\u00a0 No matter what duplicity and lies are found in the report \u2013 it was drafted by an \u201cindependent person,\u201d period.\u00a0 However, he does not try to hide that the entire report is based on the testimony of a single person \u2013 Rodchenkov himself, who is repeatedly presented as a \u201ccredible and truthful\u201d source.\u00a0 Of course that man is accused by WADA itself of destroying 1,417 doping tests and faces deportation to Russia for doping-linked crimes, but he saw an opportunity become a \u201cvaluable witness\u201d and \u201cprisoner of conscience\u201d who is being persecuted by the \u201ctotalitarian regime\u201d in Russia.<\/p>\n

The advantage enjoyed by this \u201cindependent commission\u201d \u2013 on the basis of whose report the IOC is deciding the fate of Russia\u2019s Olympic hopefuls \u2013 is that its accusations will not be examined in court, nor can the body of evidence be challenged by the lawyers for the accused.\u00a0 Nor is the customary legal presumption of innocence anywhere in evidence.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It appears from Professor McLaren\u2019s statement that no charges will be brought against any specific Russian athletes.\u00a0 Moreover, they can all compete if they refuse to represent Russia at the Olympics.\u00a0 There are obvious reasons for this selectivity.\u00a0 A law professor and longstanding member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Professor McClaren knows very well that any charges against specific individuals that are made publicly and result in \u201clegally significant acts\u201d (such as a ban on Olympic participation) can and will be challenged in court, in accordance with international law and on the basis of the presumption of innocence.\u00a0 All the evidence to be used by the prosecution is subject to challenge, and if some fact included in those charges can be interpreted to the defendant\u2019s advantage, then the court is obliged to exclude that fact from the materials at the disposal of the prosecution.<\/p>\n

As a lawyer, McLaren understands all this very well.\u00a0 Hundreds of lawsuits filed by Russian athletes resulting in an unambiguous outcome would not only destroy his reputation and ruin him professionally \u2013 they could form the basis of a criminal investigation with obvious grounds for accusing him of intentionally distorting a few facts<\/strong>, which in his eyes can be summarized as follows.<\/p>\n

\"russia<\/a>During the Sochi Olympics, an FSB officer named Evgeny Blokhin switched the doping tests taken from Russian athletes, exchanging them for \u201cclean\u201d urine samples.\u00a0 This agent is said to have possessed a plumbing contractor\u2019s security clearance, allowing him to enter the laboratory.\u00a0 In addition, there are reports that Evgeny Kurdyatsev, \u2013 the head of the Registration and Biological Sample Accounting Department \u2013 switched the doping tests at night, through a \u201cmouse hole\u201d in the wall (!).\u00a0 Awaiting them in the adjascent building was the man who is now providing\u00a0 \u201ccredible evidence\u201d \u2013 Gregory Rodchenkov \u2013 and some other unnamed individuals, who passed Blokhin the athletes\u2019 clean doping tests to be used to replace the original samples.\u00a0 If the specific gravity of the clean urine did not match the original profile, it was \u201cadapted\u201d using table salt or distilled water.\u00a0 But of course the DNA was incompatible.\u00a0 And all of this was going on in the only official, WADA-accredited anti-doping laboratory in Russia!<\/strong><\/p>\n

How would something like that sound in any court?\u00a0 We have witnesses, but the defense team cannot subject them to cross-examination.\u00a0 We cannot prove that Blokhin is an FSB agent, but we believe it.\u00a0 We do not possess any of the original documents \u2013 not a single photograph or affidavit from the official examination \u2013 but we have sufficient evidence from a single criminal who has already confessed to his crime.\u00a0 We did not submit the emails provided by Rodchenkov to any experts to be examined, but we assert that the emails are genuine, that all the facts they contain are accurate, and that the names of the senders are correct.\u00a0 We cannot accuse the athletes, so we will accuse and punish the state!<\/p>\n

To be honest, we still do not believe that the Olympic movement has sunk so low as to deprive billions of people of the pleasure of watching the competitions, forgetting about politics and politicians.\u00a0 That would mean waving goodbye to the reputations of the WADA and the IOC and to the global system of sports as a whole.\u00a0 Perhaps a solution to the colossal problem of doping is long overdue, but is that answer to be found within the boundaries of only one country, even a great country like Russia?\u00a0 Should we take a moment here and now to dwell upon the <\/strong>multi-volume history<\/strong><\/a> of doping scandals in every single country in the world?\u00a0 And in view of these facts that have come to light, is not WADA itself the cornerstone of the existing and far-reaching system to support and cover up athletic doping all over the world?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In conclusion, we cite below the complete translation of the Russian Olympic Committee\u2019s statement<\/a> \u00a0in response to the WADA report:<\/p>\n

\"russian<\/a>\u201cThe accusations against Russian sports found in the report by Richard McLaren are so serious that a full investigation is needed, with input from all parties.\u00a0 The Russian Olympic Committee has a policy of zero tolerance and supports the fight against doping.\u00a0 It is ready to provide its full assistance and work together, as needed, with any international organization.<\/em><\/p>\n

We wholeheartedly disagree with Mr. McLaren\u2019s view that the possible banning of hundreds of clean Russian athletes from competition in the Olympic Games is an acceptable \u2018unpleasant consequence\u2019 of the charges contained in his report.<\/em><\/p>\n

The charges being made are primarily based on statements by Grigory Rodchenkov.\u00a0 This is solely based on testimony from someone who is at the epicenter of this criminal scheme, which is a blow not only to the careers and fates of a great many clean athletes, but also to the integrity of the entire international Olympic movement.<\/em><\/p>\n

Russia has fought against doping and will continue to fight at the state level, steadily stiffening the penalties for any illegal activity of this type and enforcing a precept of inevitabile punishment.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Russian Olympic Committee fully supports the harshest possible penalties against anyone who either uses banned drugs or encourages their use.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

At the same time, the ROC \u2013 acting in full compliance with the Olympic Charter \u2013 will always protect the rights of clean athletes.\u00a0 Those who throughout their careers \u2013 thanks to relentless training, talent, and willpower \u2013 strive to realize their Olympic dreams should not have their futures determined by the unfounded, unsubstantiated accusations and criminal acts of certain individuals.\u00a0 For us this is a matter of principle.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

_______________________________________<\/p>\n

The author is the Editor of<\/em> Oriental Review.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 orientalreview.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

21 Jul 2016 – The allegations of systematic state organised doping by the Russian authorities are founded on the evidence of three compromised individuals and have been presented in a way that denies Russian athletes their fundamental rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[223],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76686\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}