'Gangster State' Blamed for Russian Doping

(ATR) Russian whistleblowers say Vladimir Putin is the force behind the doping scandal that still dogs Russian sport.

Members of the U.S. Congress heard from the whistleblowers, an Olympian and expert from Germany in a hearing July 25 in Washington, D.C.

"Doping fraud is one more example of the gangster state that Vladimir Putin has created in Russia," declared attorney Jim Walden. He represents Grigory Rodchenkov, the former director of the Moscow doping lab. The original whistleblower, Rodchenkov is in hiding in the United States and did not appear at the hearing.

"There are some in our government who refuse to confront Russia for its abject criminality," Walden said.

U.S. Anti Doping Agency director Travis Tygart assailed the IOC for allowing some Russian athletes to take part in the Rio and Pyeongchang Olympics, despite the extent of the doping scandal.

He says the IOC "chose not to stand up for clean athletes and against institutionalized doping. Certainly, history will not judge that decision kindly," Tygart said.

In written testimony Rodchenkov has said that doping in Russia is the result of Putin’s orders to "win at any cost".

In her appearance at the hearing, whistleblower athlete Yulia Stepanova said Russian athletes are following orders – or face drastic consequences.

"You will lose your job, your career, and even fear for the safety of you and your family. You will be called a liar and a traitor if you stand up against the system that unfortunately still exists in Russia today."

"If Mr. Putin had a different attitude and expressed that, it would stop?" Representative Sheila Jackson Lee inquired.

"Yes, I think so," replied Stepanova, now exiled in the U.S.

She called on the U.S. Congress to pass a bill expanding the power of the U.S. to prosecute doping outside its borders. Other witnesses urged the U.S. to criminalize doping, saying the prospect of jail would be a deterrent.

An IOC spokesman, in a statement to Around the Rings on July 26, says "it is a matter of concern that the intention of the proposed legislation is to put athletes from all 206 National Olympic Committees from around the world who take part in international competition under the criminal code of U.S. law".

"My moment was stolen," U.S. Olympian Katie Uhlaender told the hearing about her experience with Russian doping. She finished fourth in the skeleton at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, behind Yelena Nikitina of Russia.

Nikitina lost the bronze medal over suspected doping, but won her appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

"A line was crossed. It erased the meaning of sport and the Olympics as I knew it," said Uhlaender, who was choked with emotion as she spoke about the bitter experience.

Tygart, who has consistently challenged the IOC and sponsors to take action to help the fight against doping, kept up the attack in the hearing.

"If the governments of the world aren't going to step up and do something about it, where are the corporations? They're profiting off the backs of these athletes.

"All it would take would be a couple phone calls from them to get this situation fixed and cleaned up. But where are they? They're sitting there counting the money," Tygart said.

The IOC responded to the latest criticism with a call for the United States to get its own house in order first when it comes to doping.

"We assume that the very worrying existing challenges with some of the professional leagues in the United States will be addressed as a matter of urgency - especially since this has become extremely obvious again in the last report of USADA which details the low level of testing currently taking place in these professional leagues," the IOC said in its statement.

Drug testing policy in the major professional leagues in the U.S. is set by collective bargaining between the leagues and the players.

The Senate hearing was held under the auspices of the Helsinki Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe to which a number of members of Congress belong. The sparsely attended hearing included barely a dozen people in the public gallery. Other hearings and votes on the floor of the House prevented no more than one or two members at a time to hear the testimony or query witnesses during the 90 minute hearing.

Reported by Ed Hula.