Protected informant to expose scale of doping

THE former Moscow laboratory director at the heart of the Russian doping scandal could turn star witness against alleged drug cheats.

It would be a twist that could cost Russia multiple Olympic medals from London 2012 and the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.

Grigory Rodchenkov, 58, has already been a key informant for investigators commissioned by the World Anti-doping Agency (WADA). He told them he oversaw doping regimes of hundreds of athletes across many sports and covered up failed tests.

Rodchenkov fled Russia in 2015 in fear of his life and is in the witness protection programme in the USA. But a source familiar with his situation says there is now a ‘conversation ongoing’ in the USA about the role he might play, as dozens of sporting world governing bodies consider possible anti-doping rule violation charges against up to 1,000 alleged Russian cheats.

After running the Sochi laboratory — now known to have been systematically corrupted in Russia’s favour — Rodchenkov was awarded the prestigious state decoration, the Order

of Friendship, by president Vladimir Putin.

Rodchenkov has since alleged Putin was among those who knew of the doping programme and last year Putin called him ‘a man with a scandalous reputation’.

As this newspaper detailed last month, the number of cases being considered by those bodies varies from the IAAF (203 possible cases in athletics), to FINA (swimming 117 cases), the IWF (weightlifting, 117 cases), FIFA (football, at least 34 cases), to more than two dozen others.

‘There isn’t a time frame and it’s not certain to happen, but there’s a conversation about how Rodchenkov might contribute,’ said the source.

The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) opened an investigation into Russia’s statesupported doping last year. We asked the DoJ whether it is feasible Rodchenkov could help prosecute sports people at some point.

Wyn Hornbuckle, deputy director of the DoJ’s office of public affairs, said he could ‘neither confirm nor deny’ that a DoJ probe into Russia even existed, or whether Rodchenkov will help.

Rodchenkov has already told WADAcommissioned investigators Dick Pound and Richard McLaren about his work and passed them supporting documents.