Russia Doping Allegations Politicize Olympic Games

A report by the World Anti-Doping Agency, or WADA, confirmed Monday that Russian state-sponsored doping occurred during the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, bolstering efforts by the US and other Western nations to ban Russian athletes from the Olympic Games, which begins next month.

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The drama surrounding Russian doping allegations harkens back to the Cold War era when international athletic competitions often served as a proxy war for the heavyweight battles between the world's superpowers, the US and the former Soviet Union. The report's release coincides with NATO´s deployment of four battalions – nearly 4,000 soldiers – to the Russian border with Poland and other Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, ostensibly to defend Western Europe from Russian aggression, the Obama Administration has said.

But many military experts, and former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, have accused NATO of preparing for an uneccessary military confrontation with Russia to expand U.S. influence to former Soviet Republics, and to arrest deepening collaboration between Russia and China.

“NATO has begun preparations for escalating from a Cold War into a hot one,” Gorbachev was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying July 9

The WADA report released Monday found that the claims of Russia's former antidoping lab director, Grigory Rodchenkov, are true. The New York Times reported in May that Rodchenkov accused Russia of covering up the use of performance-enhancing drugs by Russian Olympians at the 2014 Sochi Games.

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The WADA report was produced by Richard McLaren, a Canadian lawyer commissioned by the antidoping organization to investigate the issue. The U.S. Department of Justice had also begun its own inquiry months earlier.

While rare for the United States government to take on sports doping cases – it dropped a two-year investigation into famed cyclist Lance Armstrong before it was concluded – the U.S. inquiry will investigate all Russians who may have facilitated doping in the U.S., or used U.S. banks to conduct a doping program.

With this latest news from Russia confirmed, antidoping officials from at least 10 nations and 20 athlete groups are likely to rev up their call to have the entire Russian delegation barred from the Summer Olympics, an unprecedented move. Countries calling for Russia’s ban include the United States, Germany, Spain, Japan, Switzerland and Canada.

However, the U.S. is unquestionably the most influential, and most motivated, player in building a case against Russia, having contributed millions of dollars to WADA since the early 2000s.

WADA also recommends banning all Russian athletes from 2016 Rio Olympics.

While the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has already banned Russian track and field athletes from this summer’s games, a full-scale ban on the entire Russian delegation may escalate tensions between Moscow and Brazil’s interim government, which is headed by Michel Temer.

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While the IOC has never completely banned a country from participating in the Olympic Games, it has instituted a number of suspensions for political reasons, including the Central Powers during World War 1, Japan and Germany following their World War 2 defeats, and South Africa during apartheid.