{"id":49,"date":"2017-10-26T20:40:36","date_gmt":"2017-10-27T01:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nulr.ludist.com\/?p=49"},"modified":"2019-07-03T23:45:39","modified_gmt":"2019-07-04T04:45:39","slug":"where-in-the-world-is-russian-doctor-grigory-rodchenkov","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/where-in-the-world-is-russian-doctor-grigory-rodchenkov\/","title":{"rendered":"Where in the World is Russian Doctor Grigory Rodchenkov?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In July 2017, Russia\u2019s Investigative Committee charged<\/a> Russian Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov with \u201cabuse of official powers,” alleging that he had destroyed Russian athletes’ doping tests in the 2014 Winter\u00a0Olympics in Sochi. On September 28, 2017, the Russian Ministry issued a warrant for Rodchenkov\u2019s arrest<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, one year prior to the Russian Investigative Committee\u2019s allegations, Rodchenkov fled from Russia<\/a>\u00a0to the United States\u00a0with the help of American filmmaker Bryan Fogel. Rodchenkov entered the United States Witness Protection program in January 2016.<\/p>\n

So, why would\u00a0an American filmmaker help a doctor accused of cheating in the 2014 Winter\u00a0Olympics flee Russia?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Documentary and Bryan Fogel\u2019s Discovery<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"IcarusBryan Fogel\u2019s Netflix documentary, Icarus<\/em><\/a>, answers this question. This unlikely partnership started when Fogel began investigating doping trends in professional cycling. After learning about Lance Armstrong’s longtime use of performance-enhancing drugs, Fogel, an amateur cyclist, enlisted a team of doctors to help him \u201cdope up\u201d in order to win a prestigious amateur race called the \u201cHaute Route.\u201d Fogel hoped to prove that he could win the race with help from chemical enhancements. As he states in his documentary, \u201cOriginally, the idea I had was to prove the system in place to test athletes was bullshit.\u201d<\/p>\n

After discussing his plans with many doctors, he was introduced to Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, who was then the Director of Moscow\u2019s World Anti-Doping Agency (\u201cWADA\u201d) Laboratory. Rodchenkov offered to help Fogel navigate his way through a complex regime of steroids and anti-aging hormones. Over the next few months, Fogel injected himself with the drugs on a daily basis, which put him on track to compete with the top cyclists.<\/p>\n

The documentary took an unexpected turn in November 2015 when WADA released a report<\/a> tying Rodchenkov to state-sponsored doping efforts in Russia. Realizing there were much bigger issues at play, Fogel did what any good investigative filmmaker would do\u2014he followed the story.<\/p>\n

The Russian Doping Scheme<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBryan, it\u2019s a disaster, they\u2019re killing people, cutting heads,\u201d Rodchenkov told Fogel via Skype<\/a>, describing the fallout after the Russian government received news of the WADA report. In the documentary, Rodchenkov admits to helping Russian Olympic athletes conceal positive urine samples at the 2014 Winter\u00a0Olympics, but claims that Russian officials forced him to do it.\u00a0He\u00a0describes at length how members of the Russian intelligence service helped break into supposedly tamper-proof sample bottles each night. Rodchenkov would pass the samples<\/a> through a small hole in the wall, quickly replacing them before testing the next morning. After the report was released, Russian officials forced Rodchenkov to resign as\u00a0Laboratory Director, and he fled the country.<\/p>\n

According to Rodchenkov, dozens of Russian athletes were doping at the 2014 Winter\u00a0Olympics, including at least\u00a0fifteen medal winners. On December 9, 2016, an independent report published<\/a> by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren confirmed Rodchenkov\u2019s account. The report outlined the history of Russian doping at the 2012 Summer\u00a0Olympics in London, the 2013 Moscow Track and Field World Championship, and the 2014 Winter\u00a0Olympics. McLaren described the 2014 Winter Olympics\u00a0as the \u201capex\u201d of Russia\u2019s cheating, because Russia hosted the event and could control drug testing.<\/p>\n

The Charges Against Rodchenkov<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

The film depicts Rodchenkov as a whistleblower. Since its\u00a0release, others have named him<\/a>\u00a0“Russia’s Edward Snowden.\u201d The Russian sports ministry has continually denied<\/a>\u00a0any state-sponsored doping. Rodchenkov remains in\u00a0witness protection in the United States, fearing that he might be killed because of\u00a0his public statements incriminating the Russian government and Vladimir Putin. Rodchenkov\u2019s concerns about his safety may\u00a0not be misguided\u2014two of his close colleagues and former anti-doping officials unexpectedly died in February 2016<\/a>, soon after the WADA report was released.<\/p>\n

Former Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, now\u00a0Russia\u2019s Deputy Prime Minister, called the allegations<\/a> \u201ca continuation of the information attack on Russian sport.\u201d Instead of addressing the reporters directly, Mutko responded via\u00a0conference with Russia\u2019s state-run media outlet, \u201cTASS.\u201d According to Mutko, the claims are baseless, and were part of an attempt to discredit Russian sports ahead of the 2016 Summer\u00a0Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n

Despite the evidence from McLaren\u2019s report, which consisted of \u201c1,166 pieces of proof, including emails, documents and scientific and forensic analysis of doping samples,\u201d<\/a> the International Olympic Committee (IOC) did not ban any Russian athletes<\/a> from any competitions, instead allowing the individual federations to decide whether Russian athletes may compete. In total, about a quarter of Russia’s athletes were not permitted to compete in the 2016 Summer Olympics. Additionally, the International Paralympic Committee (\u201cIPC\u201d) banned the entire Russian Paralympic team from the 2016 Summer Paralympics.<\/p>\n

As of\u00a0September 2017, WADA has closed its investigation<\/a>, having\u00a0concluded that\u00a0the McLaren report \u201csimply may not be sufficient evidence required to sanction\u201d the Russian athletes implicated. However, the United States and sixteen National Anti-Doping Organizations persist in demanding Russia’s ban<\/a> from the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.<\/p>\n

As for\u00a0Rodchenkov\u2019s legal situation, the recent issuance of\u00a0an arrest warrant may indicate that Russia will soon demand his extradition. However, Russia does not have an extradition treaty with the United States<\/a>, so that move is unlikely to have any real effect. More news about Rodchenkov will inevitably be released as his case proceeds, but until then, grab some popcorn, power up Netflix and sit back for Icarus\u2019<\/em>\u00a0two-hour shocking expos\u00e9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In July 2017, Russia\u2019s Investigative Committee charged Russian Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov with \u201cabuse of official powers,” alleging that he had destroyed Russian athletes’ doping tests in the 2014 Winter\u00a0Olympics in Sochi. On September 28, 2017, the Russian Ministry issued a warrant for Rodchenkov\u2019s arrest. However, one year prior to the Russian Investigative Committee\u2019s allegations, Rodchenkov fled from Russia\u00a0to the United States\u00a0with the help of American filmmaker Bryan Fogel. Rodchenkov entered the United States Witness Protection program in January 2016. So,…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[8,7,3,12,13,4,6,10,9,11],"class_list":["post-49","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-board-member-contribution","tag-bryan-fogel","tag-doping","tag-icarus","tag-moscow","tag-olympics","tag-russia","tag-sochi-games","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-wada","tag-whistleblowing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.northwesternlaw.review\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}