From Inside the Games

An United States intelligence report has claimed that Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 Presidential election was conducted partly in response to the Olympic doping scandal.

According to the declassified report – which was conducted jointly by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and The National Security Agency (NSA) – evidence suggests Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to avenge what he saw as a US-directed effort to defame Russia through the doping scandal.

More than 1,000 Russian athletes have been accused of involvement in a Government-coordinated doping scheme at Sochi 2014 and other events across Summer Olympic, Winter Olympic, non-Olympic and Paralympic sport.

Allegations about Sochi first emerged in a New York Times interview with former Moscow Laboratory chief Grigory Rodchenkov in May, but has since been supported by independent evidence in a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report spearheaded by Canadian lawyer Prof Richard McLaren.

Russia do admit some doping problems, but have repeatedly denied that there was any state involvement.

They have instead claimed that it forms part of a political attack on Russia by the West.

“[Vladimir] Putin publicly pointed to the Panama Papers disclosure and the Olympic doping scandal as US-directed efforts to defame Russia, suggesting he sought to use disclosures to discredit the image of the United States and cast it as hypocritical,” the US report claims.

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