© Copyright – 2018 – Athletics Illustrated
Russia is now apparently scrambling to have the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) enter the infamous Moscow Laboratory to extract data from their computer system.
On Friday, Dec. 21, RUSADA refused entry by a five-person WADA team to enter the lab, which was at the centre of the apparent systematic doping that the Russians are accused of organizing.
Three days later Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov announced to the media that Moscow was ready for the visit. So the question is what happened during the intervening days that changed RUSADA’s perspective on WADA’s intentions?
RUSADA claimed that the tools intended to be used to extract data from their Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) was not certified by Russia. This smells of a stalling tactic.
It has been rumoured and if not directly suggested that President Vladimir Putin was well aware of the systematic doping and perhaps even potentially involved in the cover-up and other shenanigans that apparently took place around the All Russia Athletics Federation (ARAF) and RUSADA.
Interestingly, on Dec. 28, RUSADA director general Yury Ganus issued a plea for Putin to intervene – is he there when you need him?
This is where Tom Clancy would write about the LIMS data gone missing. The current data not only is now incomplete, but totally exonerates every athlete to test positive dating back to the 1990s. Or would that be Stephen King?
One thing is for sure, WADA laid out rules for Russia to follow to earn the right to compete again, and they failed. WADA bent the rules – perhaps out of pity – RUSADA failed and perhaps stalled WADA – for what purpose?
The whispers are of manipulation of the data.
This, from a society where nearly 100 per cent of athletes were doped by their very own anti-doping agency and their own anti-doping doctor, not only doped athletes, but extorted and bribed them as well.
This is a society where lab technicians would exchange urine samples through a hole in a wall, positive for negative.
This same culturally twisted and backward nation denied any wrongdoing until video proof was published.
And somehow they are to be trusted with their stalling tactics?
One thing is for sure in this saga; there is much more to come.
