Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said former Russian anti-doping chief whistle-blower, Grigory Rodchenkov, is an ‘idiot’ and should be put in prison.
Speaking to media at a conference with senior officials of his headquarters campaign for the presidential election, Putin insisted that Rodchenkov clearly has problems with the law in Russia.
“Everything is based on the statements of this person. Can we trust this man in general? Moreover we are told that he worked under control of the US Special Forces and that it is good. Good for whom? Putin said.
“Now they are helping this idiot man in the US. This man clearly has problems with the law, he must be put in prison as soon as possible.
“It’s the truth and I want the audience and the whole country to know it. But there have been such examples of doping all over the planet, but they are not highlighted and dramatised.
“We must not transform sport, the Olympic movement, in the backyard of the sort of dirty political kitchen. We admitted it’s out fault, there have been cases of doping in our country.” Putin added.
Rodchenkov at the end of January told to German TV, there’s only the Russian president had the power to order the Special Services (FSB) to organise the doping system uncovered in Russia.
However, Dmitry Peskov, the Russian president’s spokesman, earlier in the day called the charges defamation that is not based on any evidence.
IOC confirm participation of 169 athletes from Russia at Pyeongchang 2018. (Source:www.olympic-nbssports.com)
Rodchenkov was prosecuted by the Russian courts in February 2011 for attempting to sell doping products to sportsmen. After he was charged, Rodchenkov made a suicide attempt before being placed in a psychiatric hospital, and then again became a mere witness in this case, culminating in the conviction of his sister Marina Rodchenko.
Throughout the case, Rodchenkov had not left his post of Director of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory.
Moscow has always refuted the institutional dimension of the doping system. The Russian investigative authorities even accused Rodchenkov, whose testimony was at the origin of the scandal, to have personally doped Russian athletes and to have manipulated the tests in December.
International Olympic and Paralympic Committees on the other hand banned Russia from participating in the Pyeongchang Winter Games in South Korea on February 9-25, but some athletes deemed clean will be able to compete under the Olympic banner.
