Russia shuns 'swindler', 'defector' doping whistleblowers

Russia has turned on the whistleblowers who blew open the doping and corruption scandal that threatens to see the country's athletes barred from the Rio Olympics.

In 2014, track star Yuliya and her husband Vitaly Stepanov, who had worked at the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), appeared in a German television documentary, claiming widespread doping fraud in the Russian sports system.

The Stepanovs alleged that officials within the now-disgraced Russian athletics federation supplied banned substances in exchange for five percent of an athlete's earnings. Officials, they said, also worked closely with anti-doping officers to falsify or keep quiet about tests.

Yuliya Stepanova added that it was also common for Russian athletes training outside of Russia to avoid out-of-competition testing by using false names.

The sensational revelations helped plunge the IAAF into crisis and led to the Russian federation being provisionally banned.

"Who is this (Vitaly) Stepanov?" Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko asked last month.

"He was kicked out of here like a swindler," R-Sport news agency quoted Mutko as saying.

"Unfortunately, he is for some reason interesting to the makers of some kind of films, television shows. You understand what is behind this. Of course there is a campaign against us, but what can you do."

Stepanov's allegations, Mutko added, were an "information attack against Russia".

Yuliya Stepanova, who following her claims left Russia for Germany with her husband and then eight-month-old son, has since settled in the United States.

The IAAF Council will likely rule at its extraordinary meeting in Vienna on Friday if Stepanova, who herself served a two-year ban for doping, be allowed to compete in Rio under a different flag, IAAF president Sebastian Coe having said the body was ready to reach out to the 800m runner.

"We are not concerned about the possibility of Stepanova competing at the Olympics, but it should not be some kind of reward and become standard," Mutko warned.

"It's one thing if she was denouncing everybody before she was suspended, before she got caught for doping, but it's another thing when she says all this once she has been caught. So it turns out that we are rewarding her?

"Stepanova's participation in the Olympics without a selection, without qualifying is prejudicial to healthy, clean athletes who have had a healthy, honest lifestyle their whole lives. It's apparently easier to go to the Olympics by doping, getting suspended and insulting someone, telling on someone."

- 'Slander of a defector' -

Mutko's woes as he furiously bids to get the Russian federation reinstated and minds turned to Rio have been further compounded by Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of Russia's anti-doping laboratory.

Rodchenkov described in detail an organised doping campaign including at least 15 medallists during the 2014 Sochi Games, with the close involvement of the sports ministry and the FSB security service.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called Rodchenkov's accusations the "slander of a defector".

"These statements look absolutely unfounded, they aren't based on reliable data, not backed up by any argument," Peskov said last month.

"I would not trust such baseless allegations."

Mutko told R-Sport that Rodchenkov's accusations were aimed at showing that "everything we are doing to fight doping is not genuine".

"We see that comrade Rodchenkov is working on some things of the people who sheltered him, who gave him money, shelter."

The sports ministry also reacted strongly, saying Rodchenkov "was dismissed as soon as evidence of his illegal activities was obtained".

"Rodchenkov managed to deceive the anti-doping community for many years. He presented himself as a famous specialist on the fight against doping, having received international recognition for his work among the participants of the anti-doping movement.

"According to an admission made after his dismissal, Rodchenkov carried out illegal activities that violated fair play for many years. Any statement by Rodchenkov should be considered after having taken this into account."

Like fellow whistleblowers, the Stepanovs, Rodchenkov has fled his native Russia, to the United States.

Source: AFP