Doping Report: Russian Gov’t Complicit

A World Anti-Doping Agency report slammed Russia’s athletic programs and accused the Russian government of being complicit in covering up the doping. Although the report said investigators found no written directives to hide violations, “it would be naive in the extreme to conclude that activities on the scale discovered could have occurred without the explicit or tacit approval of Russian governmental authorities,” it concludes. Among other findings, it accuses the head of the Russian Sports Ministry of issuing orders to “manipulate particular samples” and claims that “select laboratory staff members were directed by the FSB not to cooperate with the WADA investigation.”