MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia's Investigative Committee refuted Richard McClaren's arguments and Rodchenkov's baseless accusations that Russia maintains a state doping program.
The committee believes that after his departure to the United States, World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) informant Grigory Rodchenkov had the opportunity to access the athletes' database remotely to create false evidence, committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said Tuesday.
"The vulnerability of the database was also known to WADA representatives, who even before 2014 pointed out these shortcomings to Rodchenkov as well as the need to block remote access. [Rodchenkov and others] had the rights to access the database and the results of athletes' tests up to June 2016, and they had had the opportunity to uncontrollably change them in order to create false evidence," Petrenko said.
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The investigation found that Rodchenkov independently distributed unauthorized medicine among the athletes. The athletes themselves were not notified of the real properties of the medicines.
The Russian Investigative bodies invited competent foreign authorities, and public and international organizations, including WADA, to cooperate in the investigation, and requested the evidence presented in the McLaren report.
Earlier, the IOC, based on Rodchenkov's testimony, deprived several Russian athletes of the gold medals they'd won at the Olympics in Sochi because of suspicions of violation of doping rules. Among them were skiers Alexander Legkov, Maxim Vylegzhanin, Bobsleighsts Alexander Zubkov, Dmitry Negodailo, Dmitry Trunenkov, biathletes Yana Romanova and Olga Viluhina, as well as several other athletes.
