The sky was already not very clear for the Russian athletes. Since Sunday evening, it has taken on even more grayish hues. And the prospect of seeing a Russian team participating in the athletics events of the Rio Games next August is fast moving away. In question, the broadcast on television, on the evening of March 6, 2016, of the third part of the investigation into doping in Russia by the German channel ARD.
The first documentary, unveiled on December 3, 2014, was titled “Secret doping file: how Russia produces its winners.” It revealed systematic doping covered up by national authorities in athletics. A shock wave. The second part, “Doping – top secret: the opaque world of athletics”, was broadcast by ARD just before the 2015 world championships in Beijing. A second earthquake.
Forced by the seriousness of the facts to take up the matter, WADA ordered an investigation by an independent commission. Last November, it declared the Russian anti-doping agency (Rusada) and the Moscow laboratory non-compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code. In the process, the IAAF in turn started the sanctions machine, suspending Russia from all athletics competitions.
With this third part, “Russia’s False Tracks”, the horizon becomes even more difficult for Russian athletes. The 30-minute documentary demonstrates, with supporting facts and documents, that nothing has really changed in Vladimir Putin's country. Excluded coaches continue to coach. The dealers continue their market. Worse: anti-doping officials perpetuate the tradition of cheating with complete impunity.
The ARD channel investigation thus presents images of a middle-distance coach, Vladimir Mokhnev, suspended for doping allegations, still in charge of a group of athletes. Out of sight, certainly, in a remote province of Russia, but without making much of his suspension.
The same investigation reveals an audio recording where we hear Anna Antselovich, the new general director of Rusada, warning an athlete of an upcoming doping test. It also presents recordings of telephone conversations with a Russian coach on the availability of performance-enhancing drugs and their costs.
Disturbing. For Joseph de Pencier, the president of the International Association of National Anti-Doping Organizations (Inado), the elements contained in the ARD documentary are likely to definitively exclude Russia from the Rio Games. “When an official intentionally notifies athletes in advance about drug tests, this should result in disciplinary consequences. There must be an investigation and the person must be sacked.”, he believes in a press release published by ARD.
In Russia, the publication of the documentary made the Minister of Sports, Vitaly Mutko, jump up. Normal. On the front line of this affair, he spares no effort to buy his country's athletics a new virginity. Without much result, it seems. “The imposition of sanctions on specific persons and the monitoring of their application are the responsibility of the competent anti-doping agencies, and not of the State,” he reacted this Monday March 7. Evoking State responsibility when it comes to individual offenses is impossible. If individuals are guilty, then they must be punished in accordance with the rules in force. » Not very convincing.
The ball is now, once again, in the hands of the IAAF. The International Federation has contented itself, for the moment, with a very diplomatic press release, where it thanks the German channel and its investigator “for giving access to the video and audio materials to Rune Andersen, the president of the task force of the IAAF. She adds that her working group “will carefully examine the issues raised by the documentary and discuss them with representatives of Rusaf (Russian Athletics Federation).” Five months before the Rio de Janeiro Games, time is running out. In both camps.
