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The Russian Investigative Committee continues criminal proceedings against former acting director of the Anti-Doping Center, a federal state unitary enterprise, Grigory Rodchenkov charged with abuse of power and destroying doping samples of athletes.

As was reported before, results of interviews of more than 700 athletes, coaches, medical workers of Russian national teams, employees of the All-Russian Sports Federations, Federal Training Sport Center of the representative teams of Russia, Russian Anti-Doping Agency RUSADA and Anti-Doping Center overturned McLaren’s claims and unsubstantiated statements made by Rodchenkov that there was some kind of a state-sponsored doping program in Russia and that BEREG-KIT tamper-proof drug-testing bottles containing tainted urine samples of Russian athletes were opened and swapped for clean ones.

Results of experiments held by Russian experts once again overturned McLarens claim and conclusions made by the Institute of Forensic Science of the University of Lausanne that the bottles could be opened. The experts made an ultimate conclusion that the bottles were impossible to open, including using methods described by McLaren and employees of the University that the bottles could be tampered with if their caps are closed by 60 degrees.

It has been established that Rodchenkov dealt out substances true properties of which the athletes or coaches were not aware about, and which later were revealed as doping. By destroying the doping samples and accusing Russia of running a state-sponsored doping program, he concealed the crimes he had committed in the Anti-Doping Center. The investigators are now working to find the evidence of his manipulating the doping samples of the athletes.

However, notwithstanding all the above mentioned, in the run-up to the meeting of the International Olympic Committee which will decide on whether the Russian team can compete in the next Winter Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, Rodchenkov, including via his American lawyer, without any proof keeps accusing Russia of manipulating the results of Russian athletes’ doping tests, promising to provide WADA, I.O.C and international sports organizations with some additional data and evidence of the state authorities of Russia allegedly covering the use of doping by Russian athletes, including football players of the Russian national team. This comes over a year and a half after he made his first allegations.

The Russian Investigative Committee has proposed to foreign competent bodies, NGOs and international organizations, including WADA, cooperation in the investigation and requested the evidence produced by McLaren.

Though the president of WADA has confirmed that they received the offer of copperation in analysis of a file which allegedly contains an electronic database of the Moscow Anti-Doping Center laboratory information system allegedly containing information on athletes’ tests, WADA has taken no steps so far.

The investigators have evidence that the database in question is vulnerable and that Migachev, Sobolevsky and Rodchenkov were able to tamper with it via remote access both while in office and after they fled to the USA.

Representatives of WADA were aware of the database’s vulnerability as well – they pointed Rodchenkov to the flaw and necessity to block the remote access as early as before 2014. Having access to the database and test results until June 2016, they were able to alter it in any way they liked to create false evidence.

Evidence of such manipulations can be provided to WADA and I.O.C.

Spokesperson for the Investigative Committee                                                                                        Svetlana Petrenko