Vladimir Putin says not only athletes are to blame for doping
The doping scandal at the recent biathlon world championship was touched upon at yesterday's meeting of the Government Presidium. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin urged the need for the Government to control doping in sports. "I would like to draw the attention of the National Olympic Committee and the ministries and agencies, of the Government as a whole, to the fact that we have no right and will not put the responsibility only on the athletes. Organisers must be aware of their own responsibility," the Prime Minister said.
He ordered the Ministry of Sport and the sporting community to continue a review of the current situation and to draw practical conclusions. "All the conditions should be put in place and a mechanism of state doping control must be put in place - and we should act energetically. If necessary let us discuss tougher measures of liability," Mr Putin remarked.
Before the start of the world biathlon championship three members of the Russian team - Albina Akhatova, Yekaterina Yuryeva and Dmitry Yaroshenko - were caught out using forbidden drugs. All the three had erythropoietin in their bodies, and Yaroshenko tested positive at all the three stages of the World Cup.
There were angry comments from the members and coaches of the rival teams and the president of the International Biathlon Union, Andreas Besseberg, said that "there can be no justification of the three athletes." He said that "the incident seems to attest to systematic use of doping by one of the world's strongest teams."
THE BAN WILL LAST LONG
It has not yet been officially announced for how long the athletes will be suspended, but under the new International Olympic Committee regulations if an athlete is disqualified for a term of six months or more he/she automatically misses the Olympics that is covered by the suspension term and the next Olympics. Obviously, Akhatova, Yuryeva and Yaroshenko will miss not only the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, but also the 2014 Sochi Games.
The president of the Russian Biathlon Union, Mikhail Prokhorov, announced that a commission has been set up to look into the situation and name the culprits. The Commission includes a member of the Federal Bar, Genri Reznik, chairman of the Public Chamber Health Commission Leonid Roshal, an expert on forensic tests of materials and substances, Alexander Perelygin, and deputy head of the executive council of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency, Igor Zagorsky. The head of the commission is Yelena Anikina, executive director of the Russian Biathlon Union.
However, the Commission will have no official powers because investigating incidence of doping is within the jurisdiction of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency.
The creation of the Commission was announced last week. The Commission, created last week, has yet to hold a meeting. Genri Reznik, member of the Federal Bar, told your correspondent: "I have just joined the Commission and I am not prepared to make any comments. A consensus must be reached. Unlike many, I am a professional, so I am not going to say anything."
A LAWYER'S EXPERIENCE
The scandal involving Akhatova, Yuryeva and Yaroshenko is a high profile, but not an unusual one. One thinks of the disqualification of the skiers Larisa Lazutina and Olga Danilova at the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002. Initially people from the Skiing Federation claimed it was a conspiracy against Russia and the lawyer Anatoly Kucherena promised to uphold the case of the skiers in court. He wanted to secure Lazutina and Danilova's acquittal by the International Sport Arbitration Court in Lausanne, but the court refused to accept the petition until the skiers proved their innocence to the World Anti-Doping Agency and the International Skiing Federation.
Kucherena based his case on the statement that the method that was used to discover darbepoetin in the skiers' bodies had not passed a single official approval stage. Mr Kucherena failed to prove his case, Lazutina and Danilova were not given back their medals and their suspension was sustained.
SKIERS DRAW CONCLUSIONS
The litigation prompted some changes in the Russian Skiing Federation. The president was replaced, some new coaches appeared and when Sergei Shiryayev failed a drug test in 2006 the Federation carried out an investigation and quickly got at the truth. As a result Shiryayev's personal coach, Anatoly Chepalov, was suspended from working with national teams for two years. No drug exposures have occurred in skiing recently.
WHO IS TO BLAME
The problem is that up until now the Russian Olympic Committee, the Ministry of Sports and various sports federations have not been coordinating their work. Thus responsibility was diluted. Just yesterday Gennady Shvets, the press spokesman for the Russian Olympic Committee, said in an interview with Gazeta that his organisation could not combat drug use on its own: "We have a government body, the Ministry for Sports, Tourism and Youth Policy, to which the anti-doping laboratory reports. They have a corresponding pool of specialists. The Russian Olympic Committee does not have such a unit, although it is one of our goals to find doping which is undoubtedly bad for sports. But our measures are mainly educational."
For his part the Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko is committed to step up the anti-doping campaign. "The issues of insurance, medical support and anti-doping programmes are among the Ministry's priorities," Mr Mutko told RIA Novosti. He stressed that an effective system of relations between the Government and the sports federations should be put in place to solve the problems arising in the sports field.
"All that is necessary is to build a system of relations, said Mr Mutko. At present the government-finance Sports Training Centre has 7,000 athletes. When we sign a contract with them, we assume responsibility for their insurance, providing them with equipment and other issues. The federations act as intermediaries between the athletes and the international federations, they file the applications. At the moment we are somewhat confused. All the aspects of this interaction must be clearly set down on paper."
Regarding the duties of the federations and the Biathlon Union, Mr Mutko said that they were equally responsible for ensuring control.
"We have a laboratory, we have set up an independent anti-doping organisation, but all the sports federations must obey the anti-doping rules, he said. They are responsible for the national teams."
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Lawyer Anatoly Kucherena: "WE SHOULD FOCUS ON THE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY OF THOSE WHO TRAIN THE ATHLETES"
Speaking about responsibility, it should be criminal, but also disciplinary, civil and administrative.
I would not speak about criminal responsibility at this point, but would focus on the personal responsibility of the people who prepare athletes for competitions. They may be dismissed from their jobs, but these issues should be decided within the sports corporation.
One more thing: before declaring cases of drug abuse we should put this area in order. We should develop methods of detecting banned drugs that are transparent and are understood by all countries. Unfortunately, there are no such uniform methods yet.
This was brought home to me when I represented the interests of Russian skiers Larisa Lazutina and Olga Danilova accused of drug use at the sports arbitration court in Lausanne (CAS). An expert had declared that he had used an "unofficial methodology" for drugs testing.
The tests should be administered by top class specialists because there are many drugs today that may contain banned substances. Otherwise all the conclusions of experts will be based on hunches.
By Tatyana Vingurt; Kirill Dementyev; Maria Milevskaya; Valery Yaroshevsky