Translated material
Rodchenkov opposed the IOC
Rodchenkov’s lawyer at a hearing in Congress accused the IOC of corruption. He urged the United States to adopt a law against fraud with doping
Jim Walden plays at the hearing in the Helsinki Commission of the US Congress, February 22, 2018 photo: frame * * c-span.org
Recognition in pure English
Jim Walden, lawyer of the Informer of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), ex-head of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory Grigory Rodchenkov accused the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of corruption and unwillingness to fight doping in Russia. He made such a statement at the end of last week at a hearing in the Helsinki Commission of the US Congress (Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe), where the author of these lines was present.
how he betrayed the publicity of the doping test
Russian athletes at the 2014 Olympics
In Sochi Photo: Twitter
Rodchenkov himself, who, after fleeing in the United States in January 2016, betrayed the replacement of the doping industry of Russian athletes at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, insisting on the existence of a state doping system in Russia, at the US Congress event. But the lawyer read out the letter of his client. In a letter of Rodchenkov, who, as the US media reported, fell under the program for protecting witnesses, expressed the hope that over time he would have the opportunity to personally speak to the Helsinki Commission, but this can happen only if the situation with his security changes.
“I had no choice but to play his role in this criminal scheme,” Rodchenkov wrote to congressmen, recalling that his two colleagues “died under unknown circumstances”
In a letter, the WADA informant brought “the most serious apologies” for his “important role in the Russian state doping system”, once again recalling that he acted under the direct leadership of the Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation Vitaly Mutko and his first deputy Yuri Nagorny. “I had no choice but to play my role in this criminal scheme. But I hope you understand that I have done a lot of work to promote clean sports when the director of the Moscow Anti -Doping Laboratory was, ”Rodchenkov said, recalling that his two colleagues“ died under unclear circumstances ”* and he himself would have threatened the same fate in Russia.
* We are talking about an unexpected death in February 2016, two former leaders of the Russian anti -doping agency (Rusada) - Vyacheslav Sinev and Nikita Kamaev. Moreover, Kamaev, as Rodchenkov claimed in an interview with The New York Times , “was a healthy person in the prime of strength,” and his “heart attack” occurred immediately after “the Kremlin found out that he wrote a book about a doping program”
The lawyer Walden quoted passages from a letter where Rodchenkov reminded that Russia was pursuing him, and complained about the unwillingness of the IOC to use his influence and powers so that this persecution ceases. Passiveness of the IOC - a “terrible signal for future exposure”, quoted Walden his client.
Corruption at the international level
The coordinator of the hearings, the political adviser to the Helsinki Commission of the US Congress Paul Massaro, asked Walden, and what, in fact, is happening now in the IOC? And here the word "corruption" sounded from the lips of the lawyer. “Whether you want or not, but the actions (international Olympic) committee look like corruption, complicity in it or at best inaction,” the lawyer noted. He explained: this means that the IOC did not want to completely excommunicate the Russian team from participating in the newly completed Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, where she won 17 medals.
“Whether you want or not, but the actions (international Olympic) committee look like corruption, complicity in it or at best inaction,” the lawyer noted
And further: “We need unified standards of justice. It is impossible to make some requirements for Kuwait ( the National Olympic Committee of Kuwait was suspended in 2015 from participating in Games in Rio de Janeiro due to the “political intervention of the Kuwaiti government in sports.” -NT) and others, for example, the United States. If they are going to punish countries for attempts to influence the independence of the Olympic committees, then they must do this on the basis of uniform principles. And the only explanation of the IOC decisions made is corruption, complicity in it, or I do not know what else, ”said Walden.
The lawyer urged the United States to take the struggle with doping - not only at home, but throughout the world. He recalled that in a number of European countries, laws have already been adopted that equate the use of drugs prohibited in sports, while in America there is nothing of the kind.
“It is necessary to stop calling it just doping. It is necessary to call a spade a spade with their proper-time fraud when someone is trying to show that he is clean, although he is actually in mud, ”said Walden.
In the development of a new anti -doping law, the lawyer offered the authorities his services (whether he agreed on this step with Rodchenkov, and remained incomprehensible). “I will be glad to cooperate with the Helsinki Commission in the preparation of the first legislation to combat doping fraud,” said Walden.
The law on the fight against doping, according to his thoughts, should resemble the US law on the fight against foreign corruption, which allows the American authorities to pursue government officials from other countries if they are involved in criminal schemes affecting the interests of the United States.
The purpose of the speech
The audience of the hearings consisted mainly of two dozen young people, in the type of graduate students or referents who did not ask Rodchenkov’s lawyer a single question. Although, perhaps, many asked at least one question: and with what, in fact, the demarche, who undertook Rodchenkov in Congress through his lawyer.
Considering that there were no congressmen in the hall, including members of the US Helsinsky Commission itself (although the full hall of legislators is gathering at the “Russian” events that take the opportunity to express their position at the “Russian” events), we can conclude - first of all, Rodchenkov and his lawyer were needed.
The fact is that in the coming days the IOC must decide on the restoration of the Rights of the Olympic Committee of Russia (OKR). As a member of the IOC, the famous Russian coach Shamil Tarpishchev predicts, this can happen on February 28. The IOC leadership did not exclude that they would restore the OCD in rights, despite the fact that the results of two Russian athletes in Pyeongchang were canceled due to positive doping industry. And this, in turn, means that the next WADA reports on doping abuses in Russia, which are in the preparation stage with Rodchenkov, may no longer have the previous effect: by barely lifting sanctions against the OKR, the IOC is unlikely to go to new ones. The accusation of the IOC of corruption looks like a preemptive blow, an attempt to undermine the confidence in the organization as such.
If the OCD is restored in rights, then the next WADA reports on doping abuses in Russia will not have the previous effect: barely lifting sanctions against the OCD, the IOC is unlikely to decide on new
In addition, shortly before the doping hearings in Congress, reports about the lawsuit against Rodchenkov, who were filed by the former Russian biathletes Olga Zaitseva, Yana Romanova and Olga Vilukhina. The claim for slander and moral damage was supported by the ex-head of the Union of Biathlonists of Russia, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov. In the USA, Prokhorov is known first of all as the owner of the Brooklyn Nets NBA club.
“Rodchenkov through Walden had to enlist additional support in Congress, given that Prokhorov was ready to abandon all his forces to win in court,” the informed source in Washington explained NT of the Situation.
By the way, the lawyer of Scott Balber, who also represents the Russian billionaire Arass Agalarov and his son Emin, to defend the interests of Russian athletes in the court - both, as opponents of President Donald Trump believe, are involved in Russia's attempts to influence the outcome of presidential elections in the United States in 2016 by draining the incident from the democrats of Hillary Clannon. And in 2013, Balber was the interests of Trump himself at the process against comedian Bill Maher, who compared the billionaire with Orangutan.
There is another explanation for Demarsha Rodchenkov in Congress. The fact is that, a few days remained before the Academy of Cinema Academy of Cinema Academy of Cinema Academy of Cinema. And the film “Icarus”, which was attended by Grigory Rodchenkov, this year claims to win the nomination “Best Documentary Picture”. Apparently, it was no coincidence that fragments of this film were shown at the very beginning of the hearing with the participation of lawyer Walden.
Where Rodchenkov hides
In early February, Rodchenkov gave an interview for the popular program of the American television channel CBS 60 minutes. On the screen, he appeared with an altered appearance - it was done, as he himself noticed, "for security reasons."
The location of Rodchenkov himself is still not known. The author of these lines tried several times to contact him, including shortly before the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, and everything is unsuccessfully. And if Rodchenkov wrote in the first electronic letter that he respects the press and “will be ready to chat when the time comes for this”, then all subsequent appeals to him remained unanswered.
Three interlocutors of the NT correspondent, who are more or less familiar with Rodchenkov, assure that since the arrival in CSH, he was not associated with them and did not tell his documents. Moreover, only one of them believes in the veracity of most testimonies of the WADA informant.
If Rodchenkov wrote in the first electronic letter that he respects the press and “will be ready to communicate when the time comes for this,” then all subsequent appeals of the NT correspondent remained unanswered
Rodchenkov stopped answering the author of these lines to answer just after reports that he was allegedly taken under the protection of the FBI as part of a program for protecting witnesses, the participants of which American law prohibit communicating with a foreign press without special permission. Apparently, a journalist from Germany Huyo Zeppelt, who interviewed Rodchenkov for his last film about doping shown on the German television channel ARD in February 2018, managed to get permission. True, the same law obliges the American special services to notify the embassy of the relevant country that its citizen was in this program. In the case of Rodchenkov, this was not done.