Last Updated on: 22nd December 2017, 10:38 am
Well, so much for my theory about Vladimir Putin trying to act like the sensible one where the Russian Olympic ban is concerned.
Russian President Vladimir Putin accused U.S. agencies of manipulating evidence from the main whistleblower on doping at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
Putin said Thursday that former Moscow anti-doping laboratory director Grigory Rodchenkov — who is under witness protection after fleeing to the United States last year — is “under the control” of the American agencies, including the FBI.Rodchenkov being in the United States “is not a positive for us, it’s a negative. It means he’s under the control of American special services,” Putin said. “What are they doing with him there? Are they giving him some kind of substances so that he says what’s required?”
He went on to say that Rodchenkov should never have been given his position in the lab because he’s mentally unstable and under several criminal investigations back home, and that the IOC trusting him is nonsense.
Speaking of nonsense, he also claimed that all this doping business is designed to interfere with the upcoming Russian election.
Putin also reiterated previous claims that Russian doping scandals are an attempt to smear the government as he runs for re-election in March, a month after the Pyeongchang Olympics.
“The scandal is being created ahead of the domestic political calendar,” he said. “Whatever people say, I’m convinced, I just know this is the case.”
Well ok, he may be on to something there. I mean if anyone knows a thing or two about interfering in elections…