Russian Doping Scandal
Prior to the 2012 summer Olympics in London, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), successors to the infamous KGB, sent agents to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). There the agents regularly visited laboratory staff and extorted them to not comply with an investigation into a widespread Russian state-sponsored doping program. This unprecedented act from a world super power shocked the sports world when it was finally revealed in a 2015 report published by the WADA. Doping is nothing new in the Olympics. What was so stunning about the scandal was that it appeared to be orchestrated from the highest levels of the Russian government.
Ultimately Russia avoided getting the entire country banned from competing in 2016 Olympics in Rio as a whole but the International Olympic Committee (IOC) disqualified 111 of the 389 athletes Russia submitted. This prompted an international response that the IOC’s suspensions amounted to merely a slap on the wrist. This opinion was held even from within the IOC itself. IOC member Dick Pound said, "the IOC is for some reason very reluctant to think about a total exclusion of the Russian team. But we've got institutionalized, government-organized cheating on a wide scale across a whole range of sports in a country. You've got to keep from turning [zero tolerance] into: ‘We have zero tolerance except for Russia.'" It is easy to see why the IOC hesitated to completely ban Russia because they are a fixture at Olympic events and top metal contenders. The Olympic games are a chance for nations to fight for supremacy in the safe space of a sporting arena and not on the battlefield. The fact that Russia would go so far to succeed in the Olympics shows just how important the competition is to posture on the world stage. In 2015 France indicted the president of the International Association of Athletics Federations on suspicion that he accepted a 1 million euro bribe from the All-Russia Athletic Federation to cover up positive doping results of at least six athletes. This exemplifies the degree to which the Russian government will go to gain the slightest edge over the competition.
It is surprising to see the degree to which these allegations are denied from within Russia even after several investigations haven proven their misconduct. President Vladimir Putin himself said that Russia had "never supported any violations in sport, we have never supported it at the state level, and we will never support this” and that the allegations were part of an "anti-Russia policy" by the West. A member of Russia's parliament, Vadim Dengin, stated, "The entire doping scandal is a pure falsification, invented to discredit and humiliate Russia." The Russian public echoes this sentiment. A poll by the Levada Center found that 14% of Russians believed that the country's athletes had doped in the Olympics, 71% did not believe WADA's reports.
All in all the fact that Russia engages in less than honorable tactics to get gold medals is a product of the way Russian politics and business has been conducted in the past. Russian history is riddled with instances where somewhat shady dealings have taken place. When the leadership fails to provide a proper path to prosperity, which has happened on more than one occasion, the Russian people fall back on personal cliques and relationships to get by. This often entails doing whatever it takes for you and your comrades to succeed. While frowned upon by most in the West, I see it as an endearing trait.
