[Joint House and Senate Hearing, 115 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
115th Congress Printed for the use of the
2nd Session Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
________________________________________________________________________
The Russian Doping Scandal:
Protecting Whistleblowers and
Combating Fraud in Sports
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
FEBRUARY 22, 2018
Briefing of the
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
________________________________________________________________________
Washington: 2018
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
234 Ford House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-1901
[email protected]
http://www.csce.gov
@HelsinkiComm
Legislative Branch Commissioners
HOUSE SENATE
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ROGER WICKER, Mississippi,
Co-Chairman Chairman
ALCEE L. HASTINGS, Florida BENJAMIN L. CARDIN. Maryland
ROBERT B. ADERHOLT, Alabama JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
MICHAEL C. BURGESS, Texas CORY GARDNER, Colorado
STEVE COHEN, Tennessee MARCO RUBIO, Florida
RICHARD HUDSON, North Carolina JEANNE SHAHEEN, New Hampshire
RANDY HULTGREN, Illinois THOM TILLIS, North Carolina
SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas TOM UDALL, New Mexico
GWEN MOORE, Wisconsin SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island
Executive Branch Commissioners
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
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The Russian Doping Scandal: Protecting
Whistleblowers and Combating Fraud in Sports
____________
February 22, 2018
Page
PARTICIPANTS
Paul Massaro, Policy Advisor, Commission for Security and Cooperation
in Europe ............................................................. 1
Jim Walden, Attorney for Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov ........................ 2
The Russian Doping Scandal: Protecting
Whistleblowers and Combating Fraud in Sports
----------
February 22, 2018
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Washington, DC
The briefing was held at 3:30 p.m. in Room 385, Russell Senate
Office Building, Washington, DC, Paul Massaro, Policy Advisor,
Commission for Security and Cooperation in Europe, presiding.
Panelists present: Paul Massaro, Policy Advisor, Commission for
Security and Cooperation in Europe; and Jim Walden, Attorney for Dr.
Grigory Rodchenkov.
Mr. Massaro. All right. Smack dab 3:30, so let's go ahead and get
started. Everybody, wake up. Hello, and welcome to this briefing of the
U.S. Helsinki Commission. The commission is a unique entity of
Congress, mandated to monitor compliance with international rules and
standards across Europe, ranging from military affairs, to economic and
environmental issues, to human rights. My name is Paul Massaro, and I
am the international economic policy advisor at the commission,
responsible primarily for anticorruption and sanctions-related issues.
I am joined today by Jim Walden, the attorney for Russian doping
whistleblower Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, for this look into the dark
underworld of fraud in sports, and what we can do about it.
As an administrative aside, I would like to mention that camera
crews are permitted to record the briefing in its entirety.
Our topic today is the Russian doping scandal, a story of
corruption and fraud on an unprecedented scale. It has now been
demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt that the Russian State was
behind a systematic effort to dope their athletes and defraud the
Olympics. No one can see how deep this rabbit hole goes, and how long
these corrupt practices have gone on. But what we can say is that it is
a microcosm of the conflicts playing out across the world. As clean
athletes compete against cheaters, so do legitimate businessmen face
off against oligarchs and governments based on the rule of law do
battle with authoritarian kleptocrats. And much like at the Olympics,
without the benefit of transparency and the bravery of those few who
stand up and say enough is enough, it becomes immeasurably more
difficult for democracy, human rights, and free markets to succeed.
Dr. Rodchenkov is one of these brave few. Formerly the director of
Russia's anti-doping laboratory, Dr. Rodchenkov was the lead architect
of Russia's state-run doping program, working with the FSB, the
successor to the Soviet KGB, to cheat the international checks put in
place to prevent doping by Olympic athletes. That all changed in 2016,
when Dr. Rodchenkov blew the whistle on the program he had once helped
facilitate, resulting in suspension of Russia from the 2018 Winter
Olympics. His revelations also generated a revitalized debate on the
need to combat corruption in international competitions more generally.
Dr. Rodchenkov now lives a precarious life in the United States,
relying on whistleblower protections and fearful that Russian agents
may one day come knocking. He seldom gives interviews or makes
statements due to this very real threat on his life. But we are lucky
enough today to have Jim with us, who will read an original statement
from Dr. Rodchenkov, as well as speak to the man's story, his hopes and
fears, and the centrality of whistleblowers in the fight against
globalized corruption.
To conclude, I would like to remark that the word corruption is
mentioned 14 times in the National Security Strategy, which I have with
me today and would like to show off. [Laughter.] Many across the U.S.
Government and the D.C. policy community are coming to terms with the
tremendous threat that globalized corruption and kleptocracy pose to
U.S. national security, and the need to build not only a 21st century
financial and legal architecture, but also an ethical society capable
of resisting expediency and opportunism at the expense of the values we
hold dear. This sort of society is exemplified by whistleblowers. And I
am humbled to speak today with Jim, who represents one of the most
impactful and courageous such whistleblowers in recent years.
Before I hand the floor over to Jim, we would like to show the
trailer for the Oscar-nominated documentary ``Icarus'' to bring you all
up to speed, for those of you unfamiliar with the case. ``Icarus''
tells the story of Dr. Rodchenkov's decision to reveal Russia's state-
run doping operation, and the implications of this decision for him and
the world.
Thank you.
[A trailer for ``Icarus'' is shown.]
Mr. Walden. Okay. Well, first of all, I want to thank Paul and the
Helsinki Commission for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. The
original invitation was for Dr. Rodchenkov. And for reasons I'll
describe, he can't be here. But I will read a statement from him. But
it's a great honor to come to a congressional commission to talk about
the importance of Dr. Rodchenkov's work and specifically to talk about
the critical juncture that we are in when it comes to clean sports.
Now, as you now know from Paul and from ``Icarus,'' and probably
from the newspapers, Dr. Rodchenkov served for about 10 years as the
director of the Moscow Anti-Doping Center, a collection of laboratories
that was supposed to enforce a strict WADA code to help catch cheaters.
Now, the World Anti-Doping Agency, or WADA, is the critical vanguard in
the fight for clean sport. They are the ones that are supposed to be
the gatekeepers. And you will not be surprised to learn that WADA's
budget is made up of money from both the International Olympic
Committee (IOC) and many individual nations. You will further not be
surprised to know that the United States is one of the largest
contributors to WADA's budget. Its $2.3 million annual contribution is
the second largest, only behind the IOC.
Now, as the world now also knows, while Dr. Rodchenkov was working
to catch cheaters under the WADA code, he harbored a dark secret. His
bosses in the Kremlin--by the way, who were supposed to be completely
independent of the Moscow Anti-Doping Center--ordered him to contrive
an elaborate doping system to allow Russian athletes to cheat clean
athletes from around the world at world competitions including, but not
limited to, the Olympics.
Now, it would take me about three days, eight hours a day, to
explain to you how sophisticated and how many people were involved in
this system. But given the time constraints I'm going to boil it down
to six main components. I'm going to separate them into two categories:
Out-of-competition testing--meaning when there's not a competition
going on--and in-competition testing. And when I talk about in-
competition testing, I'm really talking about the two events in 2014,
the world championships and the Olympics in Sochi.
Now, with respect to out-of-competition testing, Dr. Rodchenkov
disclosed that Russia had long had a system that was referred to as the
disappearing positive. For protected athletes, meaning those people
that were on national teams, they would take performance-enhancing
drugs but then, from time to time, be required to give urine tests--the
primary method to detect cheating. Those athletes, when they came into
the Moscow lab for out-of-competition testing, would be pre-tested--
meaning, before the official tests began.
And if their urine sample tested positive--meaning it was a dirty
test--that test was never downloaded to the ADAMS system, which is a
system that links to WADA. Once a dirty sample is downloaded into
ADAMS, WADA becomes aware of it and action to suspend the athlete then
occurs. Now, according to Dr. Rodchenkov, the disappearing positive
methodology was in place for Russia for virtually the entire time that
he was the director of the Russian Anti-Doping Center, and was ordered
not by him, but by his bosses in the Kremlin. And it was helped--the
orchestration was assisted by both the Center for Sports Preparation
and the FSB which, as Paul said, is the successor agency to the KGB. So
that covers out-of-competition testing.
For in-competition testing--meaning testing that occurs while the
games are going on--the system was dizzying in its checks and balances
to ensure that Russians didn't get caught. Before the games, athletes
were given a very sophisticated cocktail of three performance-enhancing
drugs. Now, the main problem, as many of you may know, with taking
performance-enhancing drugs is the time during which it stays in your
system. But Dr. Rodchenkov devised a way to mix the performance-
enhancing drugs with alcohol, and have the athletes swish it in their
mouths for a while and then spit it out, so it would be absorbed under
your tongue, sublingually. And that would keep the performance-
enhancing drugs out of your digestive system and make it harder to
detect. That was the first innovation.
But because athletes were going to be taking these performance-
enhancing drugs leading up to, and sometimes during, the competitions,
the athletes were instructed to give clean urine--meaning urine that
they provided when they weren't taking performance-enhancing drugs--so
that there could be a way to switch their dirty urine, taken during the
games, with clean urine that had been collected before. Now, there was
one major obstacle to this problem. For those of you who don't know,
during competition testing when an athlete gives urine, the athlete
gives two samples--an A bottle and a B bottle. The A bottle is used for
testing during the games. The B bottle is used in case there's a
positive test in the A to check the B bottle to make sure that it
wasn't a false positive.
The problem was these bottles are tamper-proof. They're made by a
Swiss company who has developed an incredible technology for caps, such
that if you remove the cap, the cap breaks. And you can't use a
different cap because the cap has a serial number that's the same as
the serial number on the bottle. But the greatest innovation was when
the FSB found in 2013 that they could open the B bottles, which
everyone, including Dr. Rodchenkov, believed was impossible. Because if
you could open the B bottle, then you could put clean urine in it and
put the cap back on. They opened the bottles without breaking the cap.
That was the next innovation.
Then during the games, as testing began, the FSB could open the
bottles, replace the dirty urine with clean urine, restore them to the
lab, and then test them. And the idea was that they would then test
clean.
But there was another problem. The FSB could not control for
surprise inspections on athletes, both in-competition and out of
competition. And from time to time, WADA would send doping officers to
take random samples for athletes. And so, in those instances, the FSB
had a team of people that would intercept the samples once they went to
DHL and confiscate them. So that, in five minutes, in a system that had
so many other components to it, it's too complicated to go through.
Now, Dr. Rodchenkov. Let me be clear about this: Dr. Rodchenkov had
no choice but to participate in this system if he wanted to stay alive.
And in fact, despite his service to the Russian Federation, when German
media started to leak details of the Russian doping system from other
whistleblowers, and it became a major problem and the WADA
investigation started in 2015, Dr. Rodchenkov learned that the Kremlin
was hatching a new secret plan, a plan to blame him as the lone wolf.
And they planned to execute this, by executing him, and staging his
suicide. And when he learned this from a friend of his at the Kremlin,
it did not take him long to decide what to do.
Within two days, as you saw in the trailer, he was on an airplane
to Los Angeles, determined to tell the truth about the Russian state-
sponsored doping system. But he didn't come alone. He brought with him
powerful evidence to corroborate the truth of his claims. He brought a
hard drive. He brought flash drives. He brought the telephone that he
used when he was at the Moscow lab. And what he did with that evidence
was to turn it over to anti-doping authorities. And what they found was
a goldmine.
Details that have only come at the--you've seen the tip of the
iceberg in some of the media reports that you see. Emails between
himself and other co-conspirators about, among other things, the
disappearing positive methodology. Memos that he wrote to his bosses at
the Kremlin and within the FSB detailing some of the problems and
issues with the doping system in Russia. And copious handwritten daily
diaries that he has been keeping since he was a boy of every detail of
every day at the Sochi Olympics, including information about what he
was doing for the doping system and what his supervisors were doing for
the doping system.
Since he came to the United States, Dr. Rodchenkov has told the
truth, first in the documentary ``Icarus,'' and then to The New York
Times, and then to an independent commission established by WADA,
headed by a renowned investigator named Professor Richard McLaren. Now,
Professor McLaren didn't work alone. He assembled a team. He assembled
a team of experienced investigators, hardscrabble people that were
skeptical of Dr. Rodchenkov's claims. And because he knew that he
couldn't just rely on Dr. Rodchenkov's word, he hired people to review
all the evidence and also to look at stored samples of Russian
athletes, the B bottles, that had been taken from the Sochi lab and
moved to a lab in Lausanne.
And what did Professor McLaren and his team of investigators find?
They found that Dr. Rodchenkov was completely credible and, moreover,
that his evidence was fully corroborated by the documents which they
determined to be authentic, and by a rigorous and expansive testing
protocol for the samples, which showed clear evidence of tampering--
both of the bottles themselves, because of scratches and marks, and
because adjustments made to the urine to make the salt levels match the
salt levels that the athlete gave at the time of the in-competition
testing--telltale signs that Dr. Rodchenkov was telling the truth.
And, most importantly, Dr. Rodchenkov produced the actual list of
protected athletes. And the metadata for that list showed that it was
not created by him. It was created by the Center for Sports
Preparation, one of the main organizers of international sports and a
key conspirator. And it just so happens that the scratches and marks
and the salt found in samples of Russian athletes--because they tested
many, many samples beyond the people on that list--the only people that
had scratches, marks, and salt manipulation were the very people on
this famous duchess list, which is what the list was called.
After Dr. Rodchenkov's truth was upheld by Professor McLaren, Dr.
Rodchenkov's cooperation did not stop. The IOC then set up two
disciplinary commissions. And despite the fact that they delayed
significantly interviewing him and ultimately getting evidence from
him, they themselves set up a completely different forensic testing
system of the same bottles that McLaren had tested, and largely
confirmed McLaren's reports. And Dr. Rodchenkov committed himself to
submitting over 200 pages worth of affidavits, with meticulous detail
about not only the Russian doping program in general, but the very
officials within Russia which were pulling the strings of the puppet,
and the involvement not only of officials but of coaches and athletes.
Now, let's just stop here for a second. None of Dr. Rodchenkov's
revelations should have been news to anyone, because the evidence of a
Russian state-sponsored doping system has been mounting for years. And
it would take a day to go through all that evidence. But let me give
you a couple of snippets. In 2008, there were Olympics in Beijing. And
before the Beijing games, seven Russian athletes were suspended for
doping violations--after, in the previous year, a whole flock of other
Russians has been suspended. And The New York Times ran an article
because of the mounting suspicion. And they said--and I'm
paraphrasing--because of the number of suspensions and the varied
sports of the suspended athletes, troubling questions are starting to
mount about a state-sponsored doping system in Russia.
But then in 2013, WADA became concerned that doping was on the
rise. And starting in 2013, they published a yearly report of the
countries that had the most, what's called, an analytical adverse
finding--a doping violation. And guess what the report showed? Russia
had a staggering 225 adverse analytical findings in 2013--20 percent
more than the second-ranked country on the list. So, in 2014, WADA did
it again. And what did they find? Russia had 148 adverse analytical
findings, 20 percent above the next highest ranked country. They did it
again in 2015. What did they find? Russia had 176 adverse analytical
findings, 36 percent more than the next-highest country.
And so think about that for a second, ladies and gentlemen. In
three years' worth of time, Russia had almost 550 adverse analytical
findings. And if that, in and of itself, is not compelling evidence of
a state-sponsored doping system, I don't know what is. But I know what
the IOC determined. The IOC determined that Dr. Rodchenkov was credible
and, based on his evidence, they banned 43 of the athletes from the
duchess list for lifetime bans against any further Olympic
competitions. And so it's obviously important to talk about the
corroboration and the verification that he's telling the truth.
But you know what a truthful person does? A truthful person tells
the truth no matter whether the truth is guilt or innocence. And the
IOC also did something important based on Dr. Rodchenkov's information,
because he exonerated some athletes. There were two wrongly accused
Russian athletes. And rather than simply trying to blame everyone, Dr.
Rodchenkov called it out and said: IOC, you've gotten this wrong. I
have no reason to believe that these two people were involved. They
weren't on the duchess list. They didn't have scratches and marks. They
didn't have salt content. And I don't have any recollection of being
told that they were protected athletes. And based on Dr. Rodchenkov's
evidence, the two athletes are now competing again.
But the IOC did something else important. It suspended not only a
number of coaches, but a number of Russian officials--including the
current Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Vitaly Mutko, who orchestrated
the state-sponsored scheme, ordered it after the dismal Russian
performance in the Vancouver Winter Olympics. And the IOC determined
that he was legally responsible, culpable, for the state-sponsored
doping system. So that's the good news.
Now, here comes the bad news. Where are we now? It's not good.
Despite all of the extensive cooperation and evidence, what result, at
the end of the day, has the conflicted self-policing system of the
IOC--what has it delivered to the mission of protecting clean athletes
and upholding whistleblowers like Dr. Rodchenkov? I'm sorry to tell you
the situation is simply shameful. Now, recall something, the IOC has a
track record with respect to violations where a foreign government
unduly influences either a national Olympic Committee or a lab. The
example's Kuwait. In 2014, Kuwait passed a law. And the law, in the
IOC's view, unduly harmed the independence of the Kuwaiti Olympic
Committee. And the IOC found that this was a terrible transgression,
such that the banned Kuwait from the Olympics in 2015. And the ban
still exists, all right?
Okay, so there's the example. What does the IOC think of what
Russia did? Well, let's judge the words by the actions. At the time
that these revelations first came out in The New York Times and then
were confirmed by Professor McLaren, IOC president Thomas Bach called
Russia's actions, and I quote, ``A shocking and unprecedented attack on
the integrity of the Olympic Games and Sports.'' And what's more, he
promised action. He promised that he would, quote, ``Not hesitate to
take the toughest sanctions available against any individual or
organization implicated in the criminality.'' So, surely you would
think an unprecedented attack would result in an unprecedented set of
disciplinary measures. Obviously, only a complete ban would have the
dual purpose of punishing Russia's systematic doping system and
deterring other cheaters.
And when he announced, on December 5th, that there would be a ban,
there was much international acclaim. And I confess, I was part of the
choir. I believed the words. And so did everyone else, until they read
the fine print. The ban wasn't a ban at all. It was hardly a slap on
the wrist. And in retrospect, it looks like a carefully crafted PR
stunt, a sham, and one that has earmarks of extensive negotiations with
Russia. I mean, after all, think about it. In the current Olympic Games
in Pyeongchang, Russia is fielding one of the largest Olympic teams,
despite the fact that it's, quote, unquote, ``banned.''
And they're not just competing and neutrals, the way other
suspended countries--and for those of you who don't know what neutral
means, it means no national insignia. You're competing under the
Olympic flag as Olympic athletes--but Russia got a special
dispensation. Their athletes are wearing uniforms bearing Russia's
name. And this ban, which is really just a temporary suspension, is
going to be lifted in this Olympic game. And mark my words--[laughs]--
by Tuesday, Thomas Bach is going to lift the ban and the Russians are
going to march at the closing ceremony under their own national flag,
despite this horrific behavior.
The Olympic self-policing system has had other catastrophes as
well. Most of the 43 lifetime bans that I spoke about before, imposed
by the IOC, have now been overturned by the highest court in sport,
which is called the Court of Arbitration for Sport, allowing most of
the athletes to compete again. But, most egregiously, Russia has been
permitted, remarkably, to stonewall the IOC and WADA. Despite almost on
a daily basis protesting their innocent and decrying the doping scandal
as a byproduct of some Western conspiracy--in which, I assume, I must
be a conspirator--Russia refuses to turn over critical evidence that
was ordered by WADA more than a year ago.
Why? If they're innocent, and there's no doping system, then why
not turn over the evidence? And let me just unpack that a little bit
for you when we talk about the evidence. There are a lot of things that
can be manipulated within a doping laboratory. But there's one thing
that can't be. The testing equipment itself, as long as you're not
running a pretest, records the results of the test on the computer
drive for the testing equipment. And you can't change that, right?
There is no way to alter it. There's no way to fake it. There's no way
to change it at all. It's a permanent record. And WADA told Russia to
turn over that data. And they've refused. And if that's not an
admission of guilt, I really don't know what it is.
But let's ask another question: Honestly, has Russia accepted a
scintilla of responsibility for this, despite the fact that, at least
now, with respect to 11 athletes, the bans were in fact upheld by the
Court for Sports Arbitration? Well, this comment from Pyotr Tolstoy, a
leading member of Russia's state Duma, which is the lower house of
their legislature, typifies Russia's reaction. I'm going to quote: ``We
won't apologize. We won't apologize to Bach, who prepared this
report''--banning the Russian athletes--``so sweetly.'' We have nothing
to apologize for. And neither do our athletes.
And what's more, putting aside the lack of any acceptance of
responsibility or contrition, Russia has sought to retaliate against
Dr. Rodchenkov again and again. Only, by the way, after his cooperation
was revealed--Russia indicted him twice for politically motivated
crimes. And let's be clear, in order for this sort of system to exist,
obviously many people had to be involved. It couldn't have possibly
been one man. No lone wolf could do all the things that were necessary
in order for even a system that was less sophisticated to succeed.
There had to be athletes participating, coaches participating, people
swapping samples, people helping to cover it up.
Russia, not surprisingly, singled Dr. Rodchenkov out for these
criminal charges, right? So that shows the motivation. The motivation
is to silence him. Russian officials have harassed his family,
confiscated his property, and even declared--and I'm going to quote
here--that he should be, quote, ``Shot as Stalin would have done.'' And
to discredit Dr. Rodchenkov, even Russian President Vladimir Putin has
gotten in the game, on the one hand accusing the FBI of drugging Dr.
Rodchenkov to elicit a false confession, while at the same time calling
Dr. Rodchenkov an imbecile and mentally unstable.
Now, I was an organized crime prosecutor for many years. So I'm
very used to seeing people who cooperate be discredited, or attempt to
be discredited, by people that were their conspirators. So let's be
clear about this. The U.S. didn't pick Dr. Rodchenkov. Russia did. They
made him the director of the Moscow lab. When opponents of Vitaly Mutko
started an investigation of Dr. Rodchenkov back in 2011, allegedly for
distributing performance-enhancing drugs--which was his job--it was the
Kremlin that quashed those charges so that Grigory Rodchenkov could
continue the work that they had authorized. So Russia picked this
witness. Nobody from the West did.
And to cap things off, just to make it extra sweet, just this week
Dr. Rodchenkov--you're not going to really believe this unless you've
seen it in the newspaper--was sued in New York State Supreme Court for
defamation from three of the Russian athletes who had the most evidence
against them in the McLaren report, in a lawsuit no doubt backed by the
Kremlin. And I will say, just on a personal note, I have read media
reports that an owner of an NBA franchise is helping to finance this
frivolous lawsuit. And I hope that those reports are inaccurate,
because if an NBA franchise owner is using NBA revenue to finance a
lawsuit to attack and silence a whistleblower who's trying to bring
integrity back to sports, I think that every American and every
basketball fan would be galled by that. And I certainly hope that the
NBA is monitoring this closely, because this sends a terrible message--
a terrible message to the players, the fans, and the kids that watch
that team.
So this whole litany of retaliation, right, spanning the last year
and a half, which I've only just summarized--believe me, if you want to
ask me questions I'll give you 15 more examples--what has the IOC done?
Because the IOC has power, right? The power is right now the Russian
Olympic Committee is suspended. And the IOC retained for itself in this
ban the ability to continue that suspension if Russia didn't behave, if
it didn't honor the IOC's decision. So all the IOC has to do is to pick
up the phone and call Vitaly Mutko and say: This ban is going to
continue in these Olympic Games and future Olympic Games, unless you
leave our main witness alone. After all, he's testified, given
affidavits, submitted evidence, been corroborated. I think that's the
least that they could do, is make a phone call.
And what has the IOC done? Nothing. They've sat by and watched this
abhorrent behavior and done not a single thing to stop the Russians. So
let me ask you a question, do think that that emboldens the Russians
when they act in this way and no one stops them? Well, you tell me,
because according to press reports, assuming that they're true, Russian
responded by retaliating against the IOC and WADA, right? [Laughs.]
According to press reports, they hacked WADA's and the IOC's computers.
They leaked their confidential documents. And some Russian Government
officials have promised to impose sanctions on IOC members and WADA
executives in retaliation for the ban. Does that sound like behavior
that deserves its place among other nations upholding Olympic ideals?
Well, in the midst of all this--just funny twists and turns of this
case, no one would have guessed what would happen next, right?
[Laughs.] Because another whistleblower, in the midst of this whole
thing--not Dr. Rodchenkov, not anyone that he had control of, he
doesn't even know who it is--someone within Russia leaked a
confidential database dating back before the Sochi games that the
Moscow lab had been using to record all of the adverse analytical
findings before they made them disappear. This is exactly the evidence
that Russia wouldn't produce. And the whistleblower disclosed it.
Now, WADA acted. WADA spent much time and ultimately authenticated
it as a true and exact copy of what's called the LIMS database, the
laboratory information management system, within the Moscow laboratory.
And I've been assured by WADA that it is analyzing the thousands and
thousands of adverse analytical findings stored in that secret
database, and it will disclose the identities of those athletes to the
international federations. And if the international federations do not
bring cases against every single one of those athletes, Olivier Niggli
said that WADA would do it. And I believe him. So WADA has acted.
But after the disclosure of the LIMS database, what did the IOC do?
What did the IOC say? It's been crickets--simply crickets. Not a thing.
The IOC didn't even disclose the LIMS database to the Court for Sports
Arbitration, despite the fact that, as I've been told, there are 10 or
12 athletes whose appeals were being heard who had adverse analytical
findings that had already been identified in the LIMS database. So it
would have been critical corroborating information, but the IOC did
nothing.
So, despite the overwhelming proof of a state-sponsored doping
system and epic obstruction and retaliation, IOC President Thomas Bach
still plans to lift the ban--the suspension, really, of the Russian
team. And so it's little wonder at this point that information about
infighting within the IOC executive committee is starting to leak. And
there's been really one critically important and unfortunate casualty
to that infighting, because there's a British IOC member named Adam
Pengilly.
And Mr. Pengilly, together with Dick Pound, another legendary
former IOC member, have been the two lone voices willing to stand up to
Thomas Bach's complicity. And Mr. Pengilly, for reasons that we'll all
figure out whether it's true or not, has been ejected from the Olympic
Games in South Korea on the eve of the IOC making a decision whether or
not to lift the suspension of the Russian team. So one of the, surely,
dissenting voices within the IOC has now been silenced.
So, what does this all mean? No one can seriously argue that the
cowardly and indecisive actions of the IOC are appropriate, will deter
cheaters, or are fair to clean athletes, Olympic sponsors, or fans. And
no one can seriously debate the fact that IOC's conflicted policing
system is broken and is not working. And as a result of that, who's
defrauded? Everybody knows what fraud is, right? Who's defrauded? Clean
athletes who invested substantial physical, emotional, and financial
investments in their training. Sponsors, most of whom, by the way, have
anti-doping provisions in the contracts that they make the athletes
sign, including the Russian athletes. Advertisers, international
federations, and every single country, including the United States, who
contributes to WADA's fairly large budget.
Now, I want to put a pin in something, because I think acceptance
of responsibility is extraordinarily important, and is the measure of
character of a person or a country. And the sad truth of it is, America
is not blameless either. We have had our share of cheaters. We have had
one systematic doping system in a cycling team relatively recently. I'm
proud of the fact that we stand up, point out, and convict those
individuals and make sure that they are exposed, no matter how
important they are, no matter how powerful they are, and no matter how
much money can be made off of their performances.
But we shouldn't take victory laps. And we shouldn't realize that
this is a bit of a glass house. But at the same time, the United States
has been a leader in the fight for clean sport. And the U.S. Anti-
Doping Administration, USADA, and its president, Travis Tygart, have
been lions on this issue. And if Congress does anything as a result of
this saga, I hope that they will increase the budget for USADA so that
USADA can do more of the good work that it's doing to call out cheaters
within the United States, and cheaters within the Olympic and
international communities.
But honestly, the United States can and, in my view, should do more
to fight for clean athletes and protect whistleblowers. There are
countries, such as Austria, Italy, France, and Spain, that have
actually implemented criminal penalties for doping, because this is all
about deterrence, right? It's a very simple concept. We learn it when
we are children. If our actions are punished, then the conduct will
stop. That is the basis of our criminal justice system. We don't have
laws to punish doping as a criminal violation. We have many different
conspiracies that cover many different kinds of fraud, but not fraud
that embodies doping.
And this is true, despite the huge impact that international doping
has on both U.S. athletes and U.S. sponsors, who are the main source of
revenue for the Olympics and many other world events. So we need to
change our language. We need to stop calling this doping, and call it
what it is--doping fraud, right? This is doping fraud--fraud, meaning
someone pretends that they are clean when they are dirty. It's not
implicit. They've signed certifications. They've signed contracts
saying, confirming, certifying that they are clean. And they are dirty.
And other people get harmed. That's exactly what fraud is. And doping
fraud should be the watchword in all of our discussions going forward.
But we can do more, right? I would be happy to work with this
commission and propose the first doping fraud statute. But it can't be
an ordinary statute. It's got to be a statute like the Foreign Corrupt
Practices Act. That is a statute that allows U.S. prosecutors to reach
even foreign government officials who are involved in bribery that has
an impact here. And doping is no different. Congress should pass a
doping fraud statute with a long-armed provision that allows us to
reach out of the United States and catch the cheaters that destroy the
lives of America's clean athletes and waste the resources of our
businesses.
And one of my friends, when I was talking through this idea, had a
very clever idea. And his idea was to just amend the Controlled
Substances Act. The Controlled Substances Act is something that was
passed in 1970. It's the major drug law in the United States. But it's
not just drugs such as heroin or cocaine. It actually has on the
schedule most of the worst performance-enhancing drugs, including all
of the ones that were being used by Russia during this whole system. So
we could simply just amend the Controlled Substances Act to include a
provision that has a long-armed statute that says: When there is a
conspiracy that affects U.S. persons or corporations, and that
conspiracy exists outside of the United States, because of the harm
here, we're going to prosecute it here.
So that's my recommendation for the day because, let me tell you
something, if we have a long-armed statute for doping, I guarantee you,
as long as we used it, this problem would go away. But we also have to
protect whistleblowers like Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov. I mean, understand,
the guy risked everything to come here. And what does he have to show
for it? Not much of a life at all. The IOC has proved utterly toothless
to do anything to stop the Russians from trying to indict him,
extradite him, harass him, discredit him, threaten him. And if the IOC
can't police itself, we need to pass legislation that encourages other
whistleblowers to come forward--not just from Russia, but from wherever
there are state-sponsored doping systems.
So part of this doping fraud statute should have whistleblower
protections that provide for legal assistance, immigration status, job
placement, and other kinds of support. And, as importantly, provides
tools for prosecutors to go after the people that are retaliating
against the witnesses. Because, let me tell you something, if you're in
the United States and you try to retaliate against a witness, that is a
federal crime. It should be no less of a crime because someone who's
physically here is being retaliated against by someone outside of the
United States. The harm is here.
Okay. So thank you for patiently sitting through my remarks. But I
would like to read a note from Dr. Rodchenkov that he wrote and asked
me to read to you. Here's the statement. Excuse me for reading:
``Thank you for accepting my statement. I hope at some point soon
my security situation will improve so that I may address this
commission personally. As you know, I have been cooperating with WADA
and the IOC to provide full and truthful details of Russia's state-
sponsored doping system, in which I played an important role. I
sincerely apologize for my actions, which were directed by the Minister
of Sport Vitaly Mutko and his deputy minister, Yuri Nagornykh. Many
other high-level officials, including from the Center for Sports
Preparation, RUSADA--that's the Russian Anti-Doping Agency--and the FSB
played roles in this scheme, along with many lower-level people. I
truly had no choice but to play my part in this scheme. But I hope you
understand, I did much work to advance the goal of clean sport during
my time as the director of the Moscow Anti-Doping Center.
``But despite my extensive cooperation, I am in a very difficult
position. Russia has openly retaliated against me. About that there can
be no serious question. They have singled me out for prosecution,
issued arrest warrants, are seeking my return to Russia, and even
calling for my execution. Two of my colleagues died under mysterious
circumstances after this scandal unfolded in 2005. And I fully believe
they were murdered to silence them. Had I not fled Russia, I am sure I
would have experienced that same fate.
``The IOC has the power to stop Russia's retaliation against me.
They could simply use the power they retained to continue the
suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee from participation in the
ongoing Olympics and future games until Russia stops its efforts. The
IOC has refused absolutely to use that power. In fact, the IOC seems
ready to lift the suspension before the closing ceremony in these
Olympic Games. Putting aside the direct impact on me, this sends a
terrible message to future whistleblowers. Why should anyone come
forward if the very guardians of clean sport leave their main witness,
whose truth they have repeatedly verified, twisting in the wind?
``If the IOC has proven completely ineffective at punishing
countries that dope, it will only embolden cheaters. I ask this
commission to consider the important role the United States could play
in both encouraging more whistleblowers to come forward and creating
meaningful deterrence for such epic cheating. Self-policing by the IOC
does not work, and WADA lacks the resources, tools, and independence to
solve these problems. I believe the United States has played a
leadership role but can and should play an even more forceful role in
the fight for clean sport and the protection of whistleblowers.''
Thank you very much for your time and attention. And I'll stay for
any questions. [Applause.]
Mr. Massaro. Thank you very much, Jim, for your powerful remarks.
And I'm really looking forward to working on that legislation with you.
Mr. Walden. Me too.
Mr. Massaro. [Laughs] I'm going to ask Jim a couple questions.
We're going to have a little conversation up here. And then we'll open
the floor to the audience. So please start considering your questions.
When I call on you to ask a question, please state your name and
organization. We'll bring you microphones. Please make sure you speak
into the mics, since we're being broadcast.
So to get us started, Jim, during your remarks one question kept
ringing in my mind. And that was, what is going on with the IOC? You
know, I mean, again and again you've said, OK, it's not working, it's
not working, it's not working, it's not--but why is that? Do they need
structural reform? Is it a lack of deterrence? What's going on?
Mr. Walden. Listen, I've said before that whether or not the IOC
intends this or not, these decisions look either corrupt, complicit,
or, at best, inept. But I'm sure that I'm not being 100 percent fair,
in the sense that it must be difficult to balance when you need people
to hold these competitions. You need big countries to hold them. You
need the revenue that is necessary.
Questioner. Could you start again?
Mr. Walden. I've said before, that whether this is the intent or
not, the actions of the IOC look either corrupt, complicit or, at best,
inept. But I don't think that that's completely fair, in the sense that
I'm sure it's difficult to balance the pressures of, on the one hand,
you know, doping--punishing dopers, but on the other hand, needing
large countries to host the games, to fund the games, to do all of the
things that are necessary to make the Olympics go. But we have to have
one standard of justice, right? There can't be one standard of justice
for Kuwait and another standard of justice for Russia or America, for
that matter. So if they're going to punish countries that impact the
independence of the Olympic Committees and the labs, they have to
punish those countries equally. And that's why, again, the only
rational explanation for these decisions is corruption, complicity, or
ineptitude. And I don't know, Paul, which one it is.
Mr. Massaro. Thank you, Jim. And my second question concerns the
other massive international sports association in the world, and that's
FIFA, right? And despite the fact that the Russian team has been banned
from the Pyeongchang Olympics, we're looking at a World Cup in Sochi
next year. So is it a coordination issue? Is there less doping in FIFA?
Do these organizations not speak to one another? Or is this another
case of complicity and potential corruption?
Mr. Walden. Well, I think the problems that FIFA has been having
with corruption are now well known. There's been a trial in Brooklyn
where it's been proved. There are other investigations going on. With
respect to what Dr. Rodchenkov knows about Russia soccer, I've said
publicly that he can confirm that the Russian football team--or the
soccer team, as we know it--was protected by the state-sponsored doping
system, and in particular the disappearing positive methodology. But
there's a pending investigation going on. I'm not sure if it's a
credible investigation. But he's certainly going to cooperate with FIFA
with respect to that investigation.
On your larger question, Paul, I don't really know. But what I can
say is corruption's not a long-game strategy. It is not a long-game
strategy, particularly not in this day and age where all over the
spectrum of issues that are being faced in the world people are being
empowered to step forward and tell their secrets, right? We see it in
the #MeToo movement, thank God. We see it in so many other areas. And
we're going to see it in doping. And the number of investigations of
international sports agencies that are now ongoing is dizzying. So if
they want to have a long-term game and they want to be viable, they
should stop the corruption, or even the appearance of corruption.
Because with all of these issues swirling around, to have the World Cup
in Sochi, of all places, sends a terrible message to the world.
Mr. Massaro. Great. Thanks. And let me ask a final question. In
your conversations with Dr. Rodchenkov, have you spoken to him at all
about the incentive for a nation to dope? It seems to me like in the
short term we can all imagine, you want to win a few competitions. But
it does seem like the risk/reward ratio here is way out of whack, you
know? You get caught, and----
Mr. Walden. Well, I can't tell you about the private conversations
we have, obviously.
Mr. Massaro. Yes, of course. Of course.
Mr. Walden. I can tell you what he said publicly. And he thinks
that this is unique in Russia, because of the power of sport in Russia.
And he believes--and I know that he believes it because I've seen the
agony on his face as he describes this--that the Sochi success that
brought Vladimir Putin from an epic low approval rating to an
incredibly high approval rating, emboldened Russia to invade the
Ukraine and annex Crimea. Now, is he right, is he wrong, I don't know.
But what I do know is that, again, doping is not a long-term game. It's
a short-term game. And I just hope that one of the powerful messages of
this story--whether the doping is occurring here in the United States
or it's occurring in any other Western country or any other Eastern
Bloc country--the day of reckoning is coming.
Mr. Massaro. Well, thanks so much, Jim. And we'll take questions
from the audience now. So, please wait until you receive the mic, and
if you could say your name and organization.
Questioner. Hi, there. My name is David Larkin. I'm an
international sport and anticorruption attorney, and probably the only
one in Washington, D.C. I got dragged into the sport anticorruption
world about eight years ago by accident. My first comment would be
directed to Paul. And I'd say, Paul, the United States needs to
understand something that they don't at the moment. And that is, that
sport is not about sport at the international level. What's great about
this case, is that this is a great demonstration that sport is about
geopolitics. And when you're dealing with sport at the international
level, you need to understand that it gets hijacked over and over by
foreign governments because the game dates back to 1936. Hitler's
Olympics. Sport is a great propaganda tool.
And so what you see is, you see this incursion into sport by
foreign nations over and over again. Countries across the world have
sports ministers. And the United States, almost singularly, does not.
Why? Because the United States does not understand that sport is
geopolitics. So the United States Congress gets taken for a ride on
this over and over. And in fact, I moderated a panel here at the
Capitol and found persons financed by foreign governments talking about
the legalization of sports gambling. And that should worry you, Paul.
It should worry all Americans, because we don't understand this issue
at all.
So, Jim, I appreciate what you're doing. I believe your client.
Mr. Walden. Thank you.
Questioner. Two questions really. One is, to what degree were
Russian athletes aware of this systemic program? Because if you watch
``Icarus,'' if you watch what Dr. Rodchenkov says, he says only a
portion of Russian athletes were doping at the games at various times,
right? And so that's really my first question. My second question is,
is he talks about how WADA should be afraid, okay? Why would WADA need
to be afraid?
One last point, Paul--we need to understand in the United States
that this system of international sport is systemically corrupt. We
would never allow the Court of Arbitration for Sport to exist and call
itself a court the way that it currently does in the United States.
It's gamed. And so we in the United States need to not only address the
issue in this instance. We have a system of international sport that
victimizes American athletes, and that's got to be addressed. That's
the bigger issue here. This is a great and important case, but there's
a much bigger issue. And that's the victimization of American athletes.
And I hope you're going to address that.
Mr. Massaro. Well, if I may, thank you so much for your comments.
You know, one thing about your comments that strikes me is that we
really are an outlier. And in that way, I hope we can remain an
outlier. I think that our take on sportsmanship as being between two
sportsmen is precisely what sports should be about. [Laughs.] And I
think that the United States has been able to support the rule of law
in really interesting ways around the world. And I think one of those
ways, as Jim hinted at, was the FCPA, through which our companies--you
know, you wanted U.S. investment, you got to play by the rules of the
FCPA. And that's stopped bribery. So potentially--I mean, it didn't
stop bribery entirely, but, you know, it certainly put a dent in it.
But in any case, if we were able to put some sort of legislation on
the table, or some sort of incentive for these guys to play similarly
by rules in which we acknowledge that sports is about sports--
[laughs]--and not about geopolitics, then that would likely be very
positive. That said, I really, really, really hope it doesn't go in the
reverse, and the United States ends up thinking, oh, it's about
geopolitics. We got to play their rules--no. It's about keeping sports
pure and about sports, you know? And that would just be my comment on
there. Jim.
Mr. Walden. David, thanks for your questions. And believe me when I
say I appreciate that you believe Dr. Rodchenkov. And I think many
people do. But you really asked two questions., right? The first
question was, were the Russian athletes aware. And I can't answer that
question with respect to every Russian athlete. But what I can tell you
is people don't swish things in their mouth and spit it out for no
reason, right? That's kind of impossible to believe, that that wouldn't
tip someone off, even if they hadn't been told, right? And when you're
asked to give clean urine, you know, hard to believe that you think
it's normal to give clean urine in a discarded baby bottle or a Coke
bottle or the different bottles that were being used to collect
multiple samples of clean athletes, and then give them over to the
Center for Sports Preparation. Well, why are they doing that?
But I think that the larger question is the world and, frankly, the
Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) took this case and understood it
in a way that an American prosecutor would not. They carved up the
evidence and looked really at the forest with a microscope. Instead of
realizing that when you look at all of the evidence, including Dr.
Rodchenkov's evidence and the decades' worth of evidence that exists in
other places, right--because it's not just him--there is no question
that this occurred. This is not a serious topic. And there's no one
that follows the Olympics or world competition that believes the lying
coming out of the Kremlin. So, yes, the participating Russian athletes
knew.
You asked a second question and I, frankly, am not sure I quite
understood it. I don't remember the line from the movie where he said
WADA should be afraid.
Questioner. Basically, that WADA's afraid of what he knows.
Because, let's be honest, because WADA is part of the problem. I'm just
saying, you know, in the movie he makes reference to the fact that WADA
should be--is afraid of him and some of the information he knows. And
to be frank, WADA's part of the problem. I mean, that's--historically
in this construct of international sport, WADA's absolutely part of the
problem. CAS is part of the problem. But it's the entire construct
that's the problem, that victimizes American athletes. But why was he
saying that WADA was afraid of him? That's really the question.
Mr. Walden. Yeah, yeah. So I can answer the question, but I got to
say, just in all candor, I'm guessing a little bit, right? But I just
want to tweak one thing that you're saying. This is a system, and the
system is evolving. And honestly, out of all of the nonsense that we've
had to deal with with the IOC and WADA--I can't judge historically--but
at least WADA's doing something now. You know, I believe Craig Reedie,
I believe Olivier Niggli when they look me in the eye and say: We are
going after these cases. And I look forward to it, because when the
LIMS data is revealed, no one is going to be able to dispute Dr.
Rodchenkov's truth. It would literally be impossible given the
staggering number of athletes that have adverse analytical findings
there.
But what I think that Dr. Rodchenkov is probably referring to is,
you remember that there was a time when the Moscow lab was almost
banned, right, just before Sochi. And if the Moscow lab--not banned,
suspended, I guess. If that had happened, Russia would have had a huge
problem running the Sochi Games, and implementing the state-sponsored
doping system, right, because all of their samples then would have to
be sent to other labs and they couldn't control the swapping, et
cetera, et cetera. And I think that Dr. Rodchenkov believes that he was
given a pass there.
And I don't think that he believes that it was corrupt, but that
all of these agencies are much more forgiving than they should be, and
much less skeptical and much less rigorous. And there are many, many
different factors--human error, human incompetence, lack of
independence, many different pressures put on these institutions. So
I'm sorry to give you an ``I think,'' but I think that's probably what
he was referring to.
Mr. Massaro. Great, thank you. Other questions? Please. No other
questions from the audience, huh? Okay, Stacy, do we have any from
Facebook?
Mr. Walden. Wow.
Mr. Massaro. Wow. Yes, I guess you were very comprehensive, Jim.
[Laughter.] Well, that's great. In that case, thank you so very much,
everyone. That was a fabulous briefing. Let me make mention of a
hearing we'll be having on February 28th, for all you Russia watchers
out there, on the legacy of Boris Nemtsov, all right?
Thank you so much. And with that, we'll close the briefing.
Mr. Walden. Thanks, everyone. Thank you.
Mr. Massaro. Thank you, Jim.
[Whereupon, at 4:38 p.m., the briefing ended.]
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