Russia's anti-doping agency (RUSADA) said on Wednesday that "comments made by its director general about sports doping had been distorted and taken out of context," according to Peter Hobson of REUTERS. The New York Times cited acting RUSADA Dir General Anna Antseliovich as saying there had been "an institutional conspiracy" for sports people to use doping in Russia, but that "top officials had not been involved." TASS cited a RUSADA statement as saying that "the impression had wrongly been given" that its leadership recognized that there had been an "institutional conspiracy" (REUTERS, 12/28). REUTERS' Denis Pinchuk reported Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that "Russian authorities would investigate whether they were the actual words used by Antseliovich and in what context they had been spoken before deciding how to respond." He added that "the Kremlin had from the beginning denied that the Russian state had been involved in doping." Peskov: "We are not inclined to consider this information as firsthand" (REUTERS, 12/28). In N.Y., Rebecca R. Ruiz reported "Russia is for the first time conceding that its officials carried out one of the biggest conspiracies in sports history." Over several days of interviews, Russian officials said that "they no longer disputed a damning set of facts that detailed a doping program with few, if any, historical precedents." Russian sports officials had "vehemently" denied the doping operation's existence "despite a detailed confession" by the nation's former anti-doping lab chief, Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, that was "subsequently confirmed" by global anti-doping regulators. Russia's "drastic shift in tone may be motivated by a desire to reconcile with the regulators," who have stipulated that the nation accept the findings of the recent investigation before the country is re-certified to conduct drug testing and be a host again of Olympic competitions. The officials, however, "continue to reject the accusation that the doping program was state-sponsored." They define the Russian state as President Vladimir V. Putin and his closest associates (NEW YORK TIMES, 12/27).
