National Olympic Committee to vindicate honour and dignity of Russian figure-skaters

President of the Russian Olympic Committee Leonid Tyagachov has stated that he will join the cause of Olympic Champions Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze to vindicate their honour and dignity. That was the way he commented on the intention of the Gold Medal winners of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City to sue American broadcasting companies questioning their victory.

At the request of the US FBI, Russian gangster Alimzhan Tokhtakhunov whom US secret services suspect of bribing judges at the competition was arrested in Italy on Wednesday. Such allegations are currently becoming increasingly popular in the American mass media.

The Russian official called the FBI allegations "nonsense." According to him, Berezhnaya and Sikharulidze are "great sportsmen" and "the whole world is perfectly aware of the fact that they scored a fair and high-grade victory at the Olympics."