Russia’s Investigative Committee has requested help from U.S. authorities to investigate criminal charges against the whistleblower who exposed large-scale doping violations in Russian sport.
Grigory Rodchenkov, the former director of Russia's anti-doping laboratory, was charged with abuse of authority earlier this month. He is also accused of destroying 1437 doping test samples at the laboratory in 2014.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) accused Rodchenkov last year of covering up a sophisticated doping program, backed by Russian officials.
Speaking during an interview with the Vesti FM radio station, Investigative Committee spokesperson Vladimir Markin said that a formal request had been sent for Rodchenkov to be questioned “on matters that are important to us.”
Rodchenkov moved to the United States shortly after the Moscow laboratory was shut down by WADA in November 2015. In May, he told American newspaper New York Times that a state-backed doping program at the Sochi Winter Olympic Games had seen urine samples switched during the night and passed through a hole cut in the wall. The allegations led to calls for Russia’s victories at the Sochi Olympics to be annulled.
The Kremlin has denied the allegations, calling them “slander from a turncoat.”
