Lawmakers slam Russia over doping report
U.S. lawmakers on Monday slammed Russia over a new report suggesting Russian athletes, including Olympians, participated in a state-sponsored doping program.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who often speaks out on international affairs, called the allegations “an egregious insult to all athletes who train diligently and play by the rules.”
{mosads}Cotton added that the report’s findings “aren’t surprising since Russia is a KGB state led by a KGB spy.”
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) reacted bluntly, saying the report was “not surprising.”
An independent commission of the World Anti-Doping Agency said in its more than 300-page report released Monday that it found “widespread cheating” on the part of Russia.
The report said those implicated in the “deeply rooted culture of cheating” included athletes, coaches, doctors and other Russian officials participating in a “win at all costs” mentality.
Among other items, the report alleged that Russian security services interfered with an anti-doping laboratory in Moscow leading up to and during the 2014 Olympics Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
“The Moscow laboratory is not operationally independent from RUSADA [Russian Anti-Doping Agency] or the Ministry of Sport,” the report said.
“Its impartiality, judgment and integrity were compromised by the surveillance of the FSB [Federal Security Service] within the laboratory during the Sochi Winter Olympic Games,” the report added.
Personnel from the Moscow laboratory reportedly told investigators behind the report that the Russian security forces were undercover.
“Last time in Sochi, we had some guys pretending to be engineers in the lab but actually they were from the federal security service, let’s call it the new KGB; FSB,” they said.
The report was focused on track and field, but the report suggested other sports were affected by Russian doping tactics. The commission also called for Russian track and field athletes to be barred from the 2016 Olympic Games, according to multiple reports.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) called the report “deeply shocking” and “very saddening for the world of sport,” saying it would look at the areas involving the Olympics.
“If any infringements on the anti-doping rules by athletes and or their entourage should be established, the IOC will react with its usual zero tolerance policy,” the committee said.
“With regard to the Olympic Games, the IOC will continue to take whatever measures needed to safeguard clean athletes, clean sport and good governance,” it continued.
The independent investigation was launched after a German television station aired a documentary in December 2014 alleging a state-sponsored doping system in Russia.
“International athletic competition has long been an important tool of diplomacy for the United States and countries around the world,” Cotton said in his statement Monday.
“We must preserve the integrity of these athletic events by demanding fairness and transparency,” he said, adding, “It’s clear little has changed in [President] Putin’s Russia since the days of the Soviet Union.”
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