Doping games unveil anti-Russian Olympic plot

Spokespeople for the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) said that they were "extremely disappointed" about the actions of anti-doping agencies of the USA and Canada, which with the  support from WADA Athlete Committee Chair Beckie Scott called to exclude the Russian national team from the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

ROC President Alexander Zhukov said in a letter that he sent to President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach and the head of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Craig Reedie that Russia saw the latest move as an "attempt to create an international coalition of athletes and organizations supporting the ban for Russian athletes to perform at the Olympic Games."

The head of the Russian Olympic Committee said that the Russian side was particularly concerned about the participation of Beckie Scott in the campaign as her primary task was to protect clean athletes.

"Apparently, she is determined to put collective responsibility on all clean Russian athletes and punish them for the actions that were committed by a few other athletes. We hope that WADA understands that such actions come contrary to the principles of the Olympic Charter," the head of the Russian Olympic Committee wrote in his letter.

Zhukov also paid attention to the fact that the call for anti-doping agencies to suspend the Russian team from the Olympics was supposedly based on the information received by WADA Committee chaired by Richard McLaren.

According to Russian mass media, all this is part of a well-planned and biased anti-Russian campaign to exclude Russian athletes from the Olympic Games 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, regardless of whether there is any evidence to make such a decision.

The International Swimming Federation (FINA) set out a concern about "the backstage game," the purpose of which is to form a global coalition of elected institutions in the Olympic Movement in support of the appeal to exclude Russia from the Olympic Games.

The statement from FINA said that the organization was concerned about premature calls to exclude Russia from the Olympic Games in Rio as the calls were made a few days before the publication of the report from an independent committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency under the chairmanship of of Richard McLaren.

"FINA is concerned by the premature calls from US and Canadian Anti-doping authorities to ban Russia from Rio 2016 Olympic Games several days ahead of the publication of the independent McLaren report. The contents of this report were meant to be kept strictly confidential until publication. FINA is also concerned that there has been a drive behind the scenes, led by the WADA Athletes Commission Chair, to get a global coalition of support from selected organisations in the Olympic Movement to support the call for the total ban on Russia. Again, all of this is based on the findings of the McLaren Report which is meant to have been independent and confidential. Such breaches of confidentiality and the perception of a breach of independence of the report undermine its credibility. This is a very serious matter for us all," the official statement released by the International Swimming Federation (FINA) said.

Meanwhile, WADA has called to suspend Russian athletes from all international competitions, including the Olympics, a representative of the anti-doping agency, Ben Nichols said. According to him, Russian athletes should be suspended until they change their culture.

"McLaren investigation into doping in Russia reveals most deliberate and disturbing abuse of power ever seen in sport. doping scheme across 30 sports mean there can no longer be presumption of innocence.Russian doping control system called into question. WADA calls on Sport Movement to deny Russian athletes participation at international comp including Rio until "culture change" achieved," Nichols tweeted.

The McLaren report showed that Russia's Sport Ministry initiated and took control of manipulations with samples of Russian athletes with the active participation of the Federal Security Bureau, as well as Moscow and Sochi laboratories. According to WADA officials, employees of the Sochi lab were replacing doping samples of the Russian athletes, while the Moscow lab was acting within the framework of the state doping system to conceal traces of the use of doping drugs by Russian athletes during the Winter Olympics in 2014.

Putin's official spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday, July 18, that the Kremlin was strongly opposed to the use of doping in sports. The athletes found guilty of doping should be punished accordingly, but punishing innocent athletes is unfair, Peskov said.

Commenting on the publication in The New York Times about the intention of anti-doping agencies to ask the IOC to exclude team Russia from the Olympic Games, Pesjov said that one could proceed from official statements only.

"We can not make our judgements on the basis of hypothetical information and newspaper sources. This is too serious a question," Peskov said. He also added that Russia would use a whole arsenal of legal tools to protect innocent Russian athletes. 

Noteworthy, vice-world champion of Race Walking in 2013, Anisya Kirdyapkina said that the IAAF was afraid of Russia.

"Looking at all the news, it seems that the IAAF is trying hard to exclude the Russian team from the competitions. They do not want to let us perform, because we are strong. They are afraid of us," she told Zvezda TV channel. The matter is not only about sport, as the West currently tries to put up obstacles for Russia in a game of big politics.