Russia "is facing a provisional ban as attitudes harden among the IAAF leadership after the shocking revelations of state-sponsored doping," according to Dickinson & Lewis of the LONDON TIMES. There "are growing expectations that a suspension will be enforced, though that may prove just for the short term rather than through to the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro next summer." A provisional ban "is the furthest that the IAAF can go on Friday" when the 27 council members will discuss the World Anti-Doping Agency report. IAAF President Sebastian Coe "urged the council to start the process of considering sanctions" and Russia "seems certain to face some punishment" after the "alarming" revelations. Friday’s vote "will be taken by the 27 elected council members" and a ban will require a simple majority in favor (LONDON TIMES, 11/11). In a separate article, Dickinson wrote the report into the huge scale of Russian doping has warned that the country is developing undetectable drugs that "could have significant ramifications for sport worldwide, not only in Russian athletics." Through listening to covert recordings of conversations involving coaches and athletes, WADA’s independent commission said that there were indications of "a new dimension of the doping regime in Russia" through the adoption of previously unknown performance-enhancing substances. Their investigations found evidence of work on new peptides -- "consisting of amino acids, the building blocks for protein -- and the likelihood that they were being developed by the All-Russian Research Institute of Physical Culture and Sports (VNIIFK) laboratory" led by Dr. Sergei Portugalov. Portugalov "is accused of providing Russian athletes with EPO, human growth hormone and testosterone, while taking a percentage of winnings as his fee" (LONDON TIMES, 11/11).
NOT SURPRISED: REUTERS' Ian Ransom wrote "the explosive report on Russia's anti-doping regime came as no surprise" to former WADA President John Fahey. The agency's chief for six years until '13, one of Fahey's last acts as president "was to suspend the accreditation of Russia's sole WADA-approved laboratory in Moscow after an audit found it had failed to meet standards." Fahey said, "(The report) certainly didn’t surprise me. We had Russia under constant watch in my time. What was apparent during my time was that they weren’t doing enough in their anti-doping efforts and that this report shows that it’s only got worse" (REUTERS, 11/11). In London, Rick Broadbent wrote the man behind the biggest drug scandal in American athletics said that "other nations are guilty of state-sponsored doping schemes." Victor Conte said that the U.S. "had been guilty of cover-ups involving star names." He also said American athletes were pushed toward "drug coaches" and that WADA ignored advice he gave to them in '07 and then destroyed the minutes of that meeting. Conte was the director of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative "which supplied steroids to Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery." He said that "scores of American athletes tested positive before the 1988 Olympic Games but were allowed to compete." Conte: "They covered it up by pouring the ‘B’ samples down the drain. If they’d taken action, these athletes would never have gone to the Olympic Games and won a bunch of medals. That’s state-sponsored" (LONDON TIMES, 11/11). The BBC reported All-Russia Athletics Federation General Secretary Mikhail Butov said that Russian athletics knows it has a "problem with doping," but an Olympic ban would punish its clean athletes. Butov said the claims were "not new for everybody." The IAAF "votes on sanctions on Friday." Butov, one of the 27 members who will vote, said work was underway to "change the mentality of coaches in the regions," adding that "isolation of any federation is not a good way." Butov: "We know our problem. We now have a problem with doping" (BBC, 11/11).
PUTIN CANCELS MEETING: The AP reported Russian President Vladimir Putin canceled a meeting with sports leaders, "scheduled to be held in Sochi on Wednesday in the wake of the country’s doping scandal." Putin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov "was quoted by Russian state news agencies as saying the reason for the cancellation was heavy rain that has restricted flights in and out of Sochi, the host city of last year’s Winter Olympics." The sports leaders "have instead arranged a meeting in the city of Mineralnye Vody" with Russian Olympic Committee President Alexander Zhukov (AP, 11/11).
SFA URGED TO LAUNCH INQUIRY: In London, Ben Rumsby wrote Conservative MP Damian Collins has written to Serious Fraud Office Dir David Green urging him to investigate the findings of an independent commission, which ruled the London Olympics had been "sabotaged" through the cover-up of positive drugs tests. His letter to Green read, "I was very disturbed to read the report by the World Anti-Doping Agency which was published on Monday, detailing widespread allegations of bribery, intimidation and drugs cheating in world athletics. ... I would like to ask whether the Serious Fraud Office will investigate these very serious allegations, particularly with reference to activity linked to the London Olympics, which fall within your jurisdiction" (TELEGRAPH, 11/11).
UNFAIR FOCUS: Also in London, Sean Ingle wrote Russian sports agent Andrey Baranov, who wrote a signed deposition to the IAAF in April '14 detailing bribery and extortion at the highest levels of the sport, said that "it was unfair that the focus was only on his own country." He said, "It is wrong just to be focusing on Russia. There should be a similar investigation into countries like Kenya and Ethiopia too. Their top athletes are earning far more than the Russians. Yet their levels of testing are very limited." Baranov believes that "the country should be given the chance to reform itself first." He said, "I agree 100 percent with WADA that things have to change. But Russia has a new president of the federation and a new head coach. They are doing their best to clean up the sport. Maybe it is not as fast as some would like but new and ambitious people are in positions of power" (GUARDIAN, 11/10).
