Russia accuses doping whistleblower of modifying key data

Russia is blaming the World Anti-Doping Agency’s star witness for modifying key laboratory data. His lawyer says that’s nonsense.

The Russian Investigative Committee, a major law enforcement agency, alleges that former Moscow anti-doping laboratory director Grigory Rodchenkov remotely changed test results from abroad after fleeing to the United States in 2015.

“All the evidence obtained by the investigation shows that Rodchenkov and unidentified persons intentionally made changes in the electronic database to distort the parameters and indicators of Russian athletes’ doping samples,” Russian Investigative Committee (IC) spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement Saturday.

Since leaving Russia, Rodchenkov has become a key witness for WADA, which ruled this month that the doping data — known as the LIMS database — was doctored to protect Russian athletes who failed drug tests while the data was in the custody of the IC.

Handing over the files in January was meant to be a Russian peace offering which could uncover past doping offenses involving star Russian athletes. It’s turned into another legal battleground in the saga nearly six years on from Russia hosting the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Rodchenkov’s lawyer told the AP the new allegation against his client is a “farce.”

“Rodchenkov could not and did not log into the LIMS database,” Jim Walden told The Associated Press. “We are not aware of anyone else that logged in. The point is that this is all a charade.”

WADA this month banned Russia from next year’s Tokyo Olympics over the data manipulation, though Russian athletes can still compete as neutrals.

With Russia planning a legal challenge to WADA’s sporting sanctions, the next step for Rodchenkov could be testifying at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in the spring. His lawyer said he’s ready.

“If WADA or any other agency needs Grigory to testify, Grigory will uphold his promise to cooperate fully to help atone for his role,” Walden said. MDT/AP