ARD interview: Whistleblower Rodchenkov accuses Putin of complicity

Cologne (SID) Key witness Grigory Rodchenkov has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of direct complicity in the state doping scandal. “Of course it came from the very top, from the president,” said Rodtschenkov in a telephone interview conducted by the ARD doping editorial team in cooperation with Deutschlandfunk. Putin “cannot deny” that he knew about the plan. The interview will be broadcast in parts in the latest edition of the documentary series “Geheimsache Doping” on Monday evening (from 22.45 p.m./ARD) and will be available in its entirety from Tuesday morning in the podcast on deutschlandfunk.de. The whistleblower who fled to the USA, once head of the Moscow doping control laboratory and mastermind of the doping scandal surrounding the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, is convinced that Putin was informed of all the details by Vitaly Mutko, the then sports minister and now deputy prime minister. "He knew everything because it was a very simple chain: I reported to Nagornich (the then deputy sports minister Yuri Nagornich, ed.), Nagornich reported to Mutko, Mutko reported to Putin." Rodchenkov also confirmed that there had already been a state-organized doping system in Russia for the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing and 2012 in London. He said that state doping was then perfected for 2014 in Sochi. Rodchenkov, who fled Russia in late 2015, is currently in the FBI's witness protection program. Russia is searching for him with an international arrest warrant. "I enjoy every new day that I live," he said in the interview, in which he can be heard for the first time since he was under FBI protection. Putin's complicity has not yet been proven. Neither Richard McLaren, the special investigator of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), nor the International Olympic Committee (IOC) commissions that dealt with the Russia scandal were able to establish a link to the president. McLaren and the IOC see it as proven that the Ministry of Sports was involved. Mutko and Nagornich received a lifetime ban from the Olympics. Dick Pound, WADA founding president and longest-serving IOC member, attacked IOC President Thomas Bach in the ARD documentary in connection with the handling of the Russian scandal before the 2016 Summer Games in Rio, where despite everything a Russian team was allowed to compete. basically. There is “no room for serious discussion or opposition” in the IOC. The risk is “that you become an enemy of the state.” If you criticize measures, Bach might take it personally. "He is not flexible in accepting dissenting and potentially critical comments and suggestions," said the Canadian. Pound believes Russia has been given preferential treatment ahead of the Rio Summer Games as a result of the Sochi state doping scandal. "I think if all of this had happened somewhere else, we say: Guatemala - you know the answer: Guatemala would be out. No question about it," said Pound, who, however, approved Bach's Russia course in an IOC vote in Rio. The IOC reacted calmly to Pound's attacks when asked by SID. "Mr Pound has the right to take part in any debate, he has done so in the past. After every debate there is a vote. The IOC has always and will continue to take into account all opinions, including those of a minority, in its deliberations ."

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ARD interview: Whistleblower Rodchenkov accuses Putin of complicity

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