Russia seeks to question former anti-doping lab chief

Russia's Investigative Committee has sent a request to the United States demanding to question former head of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory Grigory Rodchenkov, committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said on Monday.

On June 18, the Russian Investigative Committee opened criminal proceedings against Rodchenkov, who has fled to the United States, on charges of abuse of authority.

Rodchenkov has spoken widely about how Russia ran a cover-up of doping by dozens of its athletes at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

"We have sent a request on legal assistance to the US competent bodies so that they interrogate him on our questions. Let's see how they will implement this request," Tass quoted Markin as saying by the Vesti FM radio station.

"Judging by his (Rodchenkov's) words and his explanations hysterics, it is not ruled out that this was done to discredit the Russian anti-doping system and provoke a scandal," Markin said.

In particularity of the Russia's investigation on Rodchenkov, he said he substituted more than 100 samples taken from Russian athletes during the Sochi Olympics.

On June 8, the investigative committee also opened a criminal case against the persons who managed the All-Russian Athletics Federation (ARAF) in 2009-2013 over office abuse, which cause disqualification of athletes over doping use.

The investigation will look into materials published in some media, where the former official claimed in interviews many violations of the anti-doping regulations in the Russian sports.

The investigation will also include his participation, and also into the information presented in report of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) of November 9, 2015, related to Rodchenkov's orders to discard on December 12, 2014, doping probes, which violated international standards, the spokesman said.

--IANS

pur/vt