-
Type: campaign
-
Name: Olympic Doping Scandal
-
Id: I00063
-
Summary: On 18 July 2016, Richard McLaren, a Canadian attorney retained by WADA to investigate Grigor Rodchenkov (the former head of Russia's national anti-doping laboratory, the Anti-Doping Center, which was suspended by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in November 2015 for facilitating Russia's elaborate state-sponsored doping program. Rodchenkov helped develop and distribute banned performance-enhancing substances for thousands of Russian Olympians from 2005 to 2015. He made headlines in 2016 as a whistleblower, helping expose the complex and extensive nature of Russia's doping program. His revelations lead to Russia's partial ban from the 2016 Summer Olympics and total ban from the 2018 Winter Olympics.). These allegations led to a 97-page report covering significant state-sponsored doping in Russia.
The investigation found corroborating evidence after conducting witness interviews, reviewing thousands of documents, analysis of hard drives, forensic analysis of urine sample collection bottles, and laboratory analysis of individual athlete samples, with "more evidence becoming available by the day." The report concluded that it was shown "beyond a reasonable doubt" that Russia's Ministry of Sport, the Centre of Sports Preparation of the National Teams of Russia, the Federal Security Service (FSB), and the WADA-accredited laboratory in Moscow had "operated for the protection of doped Russian athletes" within a "state-directed failsafe system" using "the disappearing positive [test] methodology" (DPM) after the country's poor medal count during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. McLaren stated that urine samples were opened in Sochi in order to swap them "without any evidence to the untrained eye". The official producer of BEREG-KIT security bottles used for anti-doping tests, Berlinger Group, stated, "We have no knowledge of the specifications, the methods or the procedures involved in the tests and experiments conducted by the McLaren Commission."
-
Year started: 2016.0
-
From country / To country: Russia / World
-
Found via: nan
-
Date added: 2019-04-06
-
Techniques used:
Technique | Description given for this incident |
---|---|
T0001 5Ds (dismiss, distort, distract, dismay, divide) | I00063T003 4 D's (dismiss, distort, distract, dismay...Official channels ie: Putin himself; Embassies & Sports Ministry; TASS |
T0010 Cultivate ignorant agents | I00063T005 cultivate, manipulate, exploit useful idiots |
T0019 Generate information pollution | I00063T004 RT & Sputnik generate information pollution (synthetic media) |
T0031 YouTube | I00063T008 YouTube; Reddit; |
T0032 Reddit | I00063T008 YouTube; Reddit; |
T0046 Search Engine Optimization | I00063T006 SEO optimisation/manipulation ("key words") |
T0052 Tertiary sites amplify news | I00063T007 News circulated/amplifed by tertiary sites (Russia Insider, The Duran, Geopolitica.ru, Mint Press News, Oriental Review, globalresearch.ca) |
T0053 Twitter trolls amplify and manipulate | I00063T002 Twitter trolls amplify & manipulate |
T0054 Twitter bots amplify | I00063T001 Twitter bots amplify & manipulate |
T0056 Dedicated channels disseminate information pollution | I00063T004 RT & Sputnik generate information pollution (synthetic media) |
DO NOT EDIT ABOVE THIS LINE - PLEASE ADD NOTES BELOW
Actor: Russia
Timeframe: July 18, 2016 - ongoing
Date: July 18, 2016
Presumed goals:
- Sports ie the Olympics is another platform to project power, and bans on Russian athletes, the stripping of medals is serious business. Deflect from negative West perspective as state-run cheats/crooks; World/West plot against us; Proclaim Russian innocence & image to domestic audience;
Method:
- Some Russians described the allegations as an anti-Russian plot while others stated that Russia was "just doing what the rest of the world does" Just like MH17 and Skripal, Russia gets caught and goes into 4-D mode… ie: the above comment - dismiss/”what-aboutism”
- Deny - Russian President Vladimir Putin 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.
- Dismiss - Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, commented that the United States "fears honest competition", affirming Vladimir Putin's position that the United States used its influence within the IOC to "orchestrate the doping scandal"
- Many Russians believed that the IOC was retaliating against Russia for their discriminatory anti-gay law which provoked considerable controversy with the IOC during the 2014 Winter Olympics. Russian MP Dmitry Svishchev, who is also the head of Russia's Curling Federation, was quoted by Ria Novosti news agency as saying: "This is what we expected. There's nothing new, only empty allegations against all of us. If you are Russian, you'll get accused of every single sin." Aleksei Pushkov, chairman of Russia's parliamentary foreign affairs committee, said that the IAAF's decision to uphold its ban was "an act of political revenge against Russia for its independent foreign policy." A member of Russia's parliament, Vadim Dengin, stated, "The entire doping scandal is a pure falsification, invented to discredit and humiliate Russia Talking points as above are futher amplifed/spun via Russian media, and public apologists; while this happened prior to 2016 US Elections, suggesting the IRA along with trolls & bots operating in the social space (Twitter, FB, YouTube, Reddit) could be deemed naive.
Counters:
Related incidents:
- Prelude to 2016
- the end of the 2014 Sochi Olympics where Russian athletes dominate (in combination with Euromaiden “crisis”) “emboldens” Putin/Russia to make move on Ukraine invasion.
- Russians allegedly tried to hack the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)... The Justice Department filed criminal charges against seven members of the GRU, Russia's main military intelligence unit, accusing them of hacking into the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency in Colorado Springs, Colorado, as well as four international sports governing bodies. A grand jury indictment said the operation was in retaliation for the exposure of Russia's state-sponsored athlete doping program that resulted in a ban from the 2016 summer Olympics in Brazil.
References:
-
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/13/sports/russia-doping-sochi-olympics-2014.html?module=inline
-
https://www.dw.com/en/two-russians-probed-for-hacking-anti-doping-agency-wada/a-45502397
-
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/10/sports/olympics/russian-hackers-emails-doping.html
-
https://qz.com/1413474/all-of-the-victims-named-in-the-latest-russian-hacking-scandal/