MOSCOW, June 18. /TASS/. Russia's Investigative Committee has opened criminal proceedings against former Head of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory Grigory Rodchenkov, the authority's spokesman Vladimir Markin told TASS on Saturday.

The criminal proceedings were opened on charges of abuse of authority, the spokesman said.

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

Details of the case

"Preliminary investigation has states that in the course of the probe, WADA on December 9, 2014, sent a letter to Grigory Rodchenkov, the then director of the Anti-Doping Center, demanding all probes in the organization, which had been taken over previous three months beginning from September 10, 2014, and those taken later on, were frozen and kept respectively till further instructions from WADA," Markin said. "Having read the letter, Grigory Rodchenkov on December 10, 2014 confirmed by e-mail receipt of the letter on keeping the probes, assuring the samples were kept properly."

"However, on December 12, 2014, he, having the intention to conceal drawbacks and violations in his work and thus retain the managing position and in violation of the Anti-Doping Laboratory’s regulations, the labor contract, the WADA international standards and the letter from WADA regarding the keeping of the probes, issued … an oral demand to discard 1,437 probes, where 22 probes had been kept by then for less than three months." On that very day, the staff discarded the samples.

Consequences

"Thus, Rodchenkov used his authority despite the legal interests of the aforementioned organization and with the purpose of gaining personal advantages and benefits, thus having abused rights and legal interests," the spokesman said.

He said the violation of WADA’s instructions to keep the probes and of the international standards for WADA laboratories were reasons for the disciplinary proceedings against the laboratory, which international accreditation had been revoked.

"Thus, the Anti-Doping Center lost the right for work," Markin said. "Rodchenkov’s activities also have affected the interests of state, damaging its reputation, discrediting the country’s anti-doping policies, and caused revoking of the international license from the laboratory, which had been established at expense of the federal budget."

The Second Case

The Investigative Committee’s spokesman said earlier the authority had begun proceedings against those persons who in 2009-2013 were top officials at the Russian Athletics Federation, "where abuse of authorities seems evident."

"The Investigative Committee will investigate thoroughly into these cases. The main objective of our detectives is to find the truth, which some may not like, of course. However, I can guarantee the investigation will be overwhelming, full, objective, and, surely, open for as much as it may be," he said. "We shall report the investigation results to the Russian and to the foreign public.".