Runs the Sports Program spoke in washington about ideas for dealing with corruption. The commission of security and cooperation in europe, an hour and 10 minutes. Hello welcome to this briefing of the us helsinki commission. The commission is a unique entity of Congress Mandated to monitor compliance with International Rules and standards across europe ranging from military affairs to economic and environmental issues, to human rights. My name is paul up to 12. Im the International Economic policy advisor responsible for anticorruption and sanctions related issues which i am joined by jim walden, the attorney for russian doping whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov. For this book into the dark underworld of fraud in sports and what we can do with it. As an administrative aside i would like to mention the camera crew recording the briefing and its entirety. Our topic today is the russian doping scandal. A story of corruption and fraud on an unprecedented scale. It has been demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that the russian state was behind a systematic effort to dope their athletes and defraud. No one can say how deep this rabbit hole goes and how long these corrupt practices have gone on. What we can say is it is a microcosm of the conflicts playing out across the world. As clean athletes compete against cheaters, so do legitimate business men face off against oligarchs and government based on rule of law do battle with authoritarian kleptocratics. Much like at the olympics without the benefit of transparency and the bravery of those few who stand up and say enough is enough. It becomes immeasurably more difficult for democracy, human rights and free markets to succeed. Dr. Grigory rodchenkov is one of these brave people, the director of russias antidoping laboratory, Grigory Rodchenkov was the lead architect of the state run doping program. Working with the fsb, the successor to the soviet kgb, to cheat the international checks put in place to prevent doping by olympic athletes. That all changed in 2016 when Grigory Rodchenkov blew the whistle on the program he had once helped facilitate resulting in suspension of russia from the 2018 winter olympics. His revelations also generated a revitalized debate on the need to combat corruption and International Competition more generally. Grigory rodchenkov lives a precarious life in the United States, relying on whistleblower protection and fearful that russian agents may one day coming knocking. He seldom gives interviews or makes statements due to this very real threat on his life but we are lucky enough today to have jim with us who will read an original statement from Grigory Rodchenkov as well as speak to the man app story, his hopes and fears and the centrality of whistleblowers in the fight against globalized corruption. To conclude, i would like to remark the word corruption is mentioned 14 times in the National Security strategy, which i have with me today and would like to show off. Many across the Us Government and the dc policy community are coming to terms with the tremendous threat that globalized corruption and club talk or see posed to us National Policy and the need to build not only a 21stcentury financial and legal architecture but also an Ethical Society capable of resisting expediency and opportunism at the expense of the values we now hold dear. This sort of society is exemplified by whistleblowers. And i am humbled to speak today with jim, who represents one of the most courageous whistleblowers in recent years. Before i hand the floor over to jim, we would like to show the trailer for the oscar documentary icarus, to bring you up to speed for those unfamiliar with the case. Icarus tells the story of Grigory Rodchenkovs decision to reveal russias state run doping operation and the implications of this decision for him and the world, thank you. The idea that i had was to improve the system in place to test athletes was bullshit. When i started on this i didnt know what it was going to lead to. Would like to be missed. Gregory did the testing. Test my samples through his water lab in moscow. I will facilitate. It is explosive. Lets back up one second. Were you the mastermind that she did the olympics . That set off this whole chain of events. Today the World Antidoping Agency suspended russias sports drug testing lab. 99 of russian athletes are guilty of doping. An unimaginable level of criminality i will get the flight for you right now. The department of justice criminal investigation against you. We can talk to these guys about this. The slander. Recording. I want to thank them for 12 paul. It was originally for Grigory Rodchenkov but he cant be here but i will read a statement from him. It is a great honor to coming to the Congressional Commission to talk about the importance of Grigory Rodchenkovs work and specifically to talk about the critical juncture we are in when it comes to clean sports. As you now know from paul and icarus and the newspapers, Grigory Rodchenkov served for ten years as director of the Moscow Antidoping Center, it was supposed to enforce strict water codes to help catch cheaters. The World Antidoping Agency is the critical vanguard in the fight for clean sports. The ones that are supposed to be the gatekeepers. He will not be surprised to learn the budget is made of money from the ioc and many individual nations. Will not be surprised to know the United States is one of the largest contributors to its budget. It is 2. 3 million annual contribution, the secondlargest only behind the ioc. As the world knows, while Grigory Rodchenkov was working, he harbored a dark secret. His bosses in the kremlin who were supposed to be completely independent of the Moscow Antidoping Center ordered him to contrive an elaborate doping system to allow russian athletes to cheat, clean athletes from around the world, at world competitions including but not limited to the olympics. It would take me about three days, eight hours a day to explain how sophisticated and how many people were involved in the system but given the time constraints, boiled down fuzz to six main components. I will separate them into two categories come out of competition testing, when there is not a competition going on, i am really talking about the two events in 2014, World Championships and olympics associated. With respect to out of competition testing, Grigory Rodchenkov disclosed russia had long had a system that was referred to as the disappearing positive. For protected athletes meaning those people on National Teams would take performance enhancing drugs but from time to time be required to give urine tests, the primary method to detect cheating. Those athletes when they came into the moscow lab for out of competition testing would be pretested meaning before the official tests began and if there urine sample tested positive meaning it was a dirty test, that test was never downloaded to the atom system is a system that links fuzz to water. Once a dirty sample is downloaded into adams, they become aware of it and actions to suspend the athletes occur. According to Grigory Rodchenkov, disappearing positive methodology was in place for russia for virtually the entire time he was the director of the russian Antidoping Center and was ordered not by him but by his bosses in the kremlin, the orchestration was assisted by the center for sports preparation and the fsb which as paul says was a Successor Agency to the kgb. That covers out of competition testing. In the competition testing meaning testing that occurs while the games are going on, the system was dizzying in its checks and balances to ensure that russians didnt get caught. Before the games, athletes were given a sophisticated cocktail of performanceenhancing drugs. The main problem as many of you know with performanceenhancing drugs, the time during which it stays in your system but Grigory Rodchenkov devised a way to mix performanceenhancing drugs with alcohol and have the athletes swish it in their mouths for a while and spit it out so it would be absorbed under your tongue subliminally and it would keep the performanceenhancing drugs out of your digestive system and make it harder to detect. That was the first innovation. But because athletes were going to be taking these performanceenhancing drugs leading up to and sometimes during competitions, the athletes were instructed to give clean urine, meaning urine they provided when they werent taking performanceenhancing drugs so that there would be a way to switch their dirty urine with clean urine that had been collected before. There was one major obstacle to this problem. For those of you who dont know, during competition testing, when an athlete gives urine, the athlete gives two samples. And a bottle and a beer bottle. The a bottle is used to protect them during the games. Will be bottle is used in case there is a positive test to check the be bottle to make sure there wasnt a part false positive. The problem is these bottles are tamperproof, made by a Swiss Company that developed an Incredible Technology so that if you remove the cap, the brakes but you cant use a different because the serial number is the same as on the bottle. The greatest innovation was when the fsb found in 2013 they could open the b bottles which everyone including Grigory Rodchenkov believed was impossible. If you can open the b bottles, you can put clean urine in it and put the tap back on. They opened the bottles without breaking the. That was the next innovation. Then, during the game, as testing began, the fsb could open the bottles, replaced dirty urine with clean urine, restore them to the lab, and test them. The idea was they would then test clean but there was another problem. The fsb could not control surprise inspections on athletes who in competition and out of competition and from time to time they would send doping officers to take random samples for athletes. In those instances the fsb had a team of people intercepting samples and confiscating them. That, in five minutes, is a system that had so many components it is too complicated to go through. Dr. Grigory rodchenkov, let me be clear about this, dr. Grigory rodchenkov had no choice but to participate in this system if he wanted to stay alive. Despite his service to the russian federation, when german media started to leech details of the russian doping system from other whistleblowers and it became a major problem and an investigation started in 2015, Grigory Rodchenkov learned the kremlin was hatching a new secret plan, a plan to paint him as the lone wolf. They planned to execute this by executing him and staging his suicide. When he learned this from a friend of his at the kremlin he did not take long to decide what to do. Within two days, as you saw in the trailer, he was on an airplane to los angeles, determined to tell the truth about the russian statesponsored doping system. He didnt know. Alone. He brought with him powerful evidence to corroborate the truth of his claims. He brought a hard drive. He brought a flash drive. He brought the telephone that he used at the moscow lab. What he did with that evidence was to turn it over to antidoping authorities. What they found was a gold mine. Details that have only coming, you have seen the tip of the iceberg in the media reports. Emails between himself and other coconspirators about among other things the disappearing positive methodology. Memos he wrote to his bosses at the kremlin and fsb detailing the problems and issues with the doping system in russia. And copious, handwritten, daily diaries he has been keeping since he was a boy, of every detail of every day at the olympics including information about what he was doing for the doping system and what his supervisors were doing for the doping system. Since he came to the United States, Grigory Rodchenkov has told the truth, first in the documentary icarus, then at the New York Times and then to an independent commission established by w ata headed by a renowned investigator named prof. Richard mclaren. Prof. Mclaren didnt work alone. He assembled a team of experienced investigators, Hard Scrabble people who were skeptical of Grigory Rodchenkovs claims. Because he knew he couldnt just rely on Grigory Rodchenkovs word, he hired people to review all the evidence and also to look at samples of russian athletes, the bottles that had been taken from the lab and moved to a lab in lausanne. What did prof. Mclaren and his team of investigators find . They found that Grigory Rodchenkov was completely credible, and moreover, that his evidence was fully corroborated by the documents they determined to be authentic and a rigorous and expansive testing protocol for the samples which showed clear evidence of tampering both of the bottles themselves because of scratches and marks and because adjustments made to the urine to make salt levels match the salt levels the athlete game at the time of the competition testing. Telltale signs that Grigory Rodchenkov was telling the truth. And most importantly, Grigory Rodchenkov produced the actual list of protected athletes and the metadata for that list showed it was not created by him. It was created by the center for sports preparation. One of the main organizers of International Sports and a key conspirator and it just so happened that the scratches and marks and salt found in samples of russian athletes because they tested many samples beyond the people on that list, the only people that had scratches, marks and sells manipulation were the very people on this list. That they delayed significantly interviewing him and ultimately getting evidence from him. They themselves set up a completely different forensic testing system of the same bottles that mclaren had tested and largely confirmed his reports. And dr. Rodchenkov committed himself to submitting over 200 0 pages worth of affidavits with meticulous detail about not only the Russian Doping Program in general but that there is officials within russia which were pulling the strings of the puppet. And the involvement not all of officials but of coaches and athletes. Lets just stop here for a second. None of dr. Rodchenkovs revelations should have been news to anyone because the evidence of a russian statesponsored doping system has been mounting for use. It would take me a day to go through all that evidence, but let me give you a couple of snippets. In 2008 there were olympics in beijing, and before the beijing games, seven russian athletes were suspended for doping violations. After come in the Previous Year a whole flock of of the russians had been suspended. The New York Times ran an article because of a mounting suspicion and they said, and im paraphrasing, because of the number of suspensions and the various sports of the suspended athletes, troubling questions are starting to mount about statesponsored doping system and russia. But then in 2013 they became concerned doping was on the rise and starting in 2013 they published a yearly report of the countries that had the most whats called an analytical adverse finding, i doping violation. And guess what the report showed. Russia had a staggering 225 adverse analytical findings in 2013, 20 more than the second ranked rate country on the list. So in 2014, wada did it again. What did they find . Russia had 148 148 adverse analytical findings, 20 above the next highest ranked country. They didnt begin in 2015. What did did they find . Russia had 176 adverse analytical findings. 36 more than the next highest country. And so think about that for a second, ladies and gentlemen. In three years worth of time russia had almost 550 adverse analytical findings, and that in and of itself is not compelling evidence of a statesponsored doping system . I dont know what is. But i know what the ioc determined. The ioc determined that dr. Rodchenkov was credible, and based on his evidence they banned 43 of the athletes from the list for lifetime bans against any further olympic competitions. And so its obviously important to talk about dr. Rodchenkovs, the corroboration and verification hes telling the truth. But you know what a truthful person does . A truthful person tells the truth no matter whether the truth is guilt or innocence. And the ioc also did something important based on dr. Rodchenkovs information. Because he exonerated some athletes. There were two wrongly accuse russian athletes, and rather than simply trying to blame everyone, dr. Rodchenkov call it out and said ioc, youve gotten this wrong. I have no reason to believe that these two people were involved. They were not on the list. They didnt have scratches and marx. They didnt have salt content and i dont have any recollection of being told that they were protected athletes. Based on dr. Rodchenkovs evidence, the two athletes are now competing again. But the ioc did Something Else important. It suspended that only a number of coaches but a number of russian officials, including the Current DeputyPrime Minister of russian who orchestrated the statesponsored scheme, ordered it after the dismal russian performance in the vancouver winter olympics. And the ioc determined that he was legally responsible, culpable for the statesponsored doping system. So thats the good news. Now here comes the bad news. Where are we now . Its not good. Despite all of the extensive cooperation and evidence, what result at the end of the day has the conflicted self policing system of the ioc, what has it delivered to the mission of protecting clean athletes and upholding whistleblowers like dr. Rodchenkov . Im sorry to tell you that the situation is simply shameful. Now recall something. The ioc has a a track record wh respect to violations where Foreign Government unduly influences either a russian im sorry, a National Olympic committee on that. Example is kuwait. 2014 kuwait passed a a law and the law in the ioc is a view unduly harmed the independence of the kuwaiti Olympic Committee. And ioc found that this was a terrible transgression such as they banned kuwait from the olympics in 2015 and the band still exists, right . Okay. So theres an example. What does the ioc think of what russia did . Lets judge the words by the actions. At the time that these revelations first came out in the New York Times and then were confirmed by professor mclaren, ioc president called russias accidents, quote i shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of the Olympic Games and sports. And whats more he promised action. He promised that he would quote, not hesitate, to take the toughest sanctions available against any individual or organization implicated in the criminality. So surely you would think an unprecedented attack would result in an unprecedented set of disciplinary measures. Obviously only a complete ban would have the dual purpose of punishing russias systematic doping system and deterring other cheaters. And when he announced on december 5 that there would be a van, there was much international acclaim, and i confess i was part of the choir. I believe the words, and so did everyone else, until they read the fine print. The band wasnt a ban at all. It was hardly a slap on the wrist. And in retrospect it looks like a carefully crafted pr stunt, a sham, and one that has earmarks of extensive negotiations with russia. After all, think about it. In the current Olympic Games in pyeongchang, rush is building one of the largest libertines despite its quoteunquote ban. Its not competing as new flows the weight of the suspended countries and for those of you who dont know what neutral means, it means no national insignia. You are competing under the all of the flag as olympic athletes, but russia got a special disposition to their athletes are wearing uniform bearing rushes me. This ban which it was a temporary suspension, is going to be lifted in this Olympic Games. Mark my words, by tuesday, thomas bach will lift the ban and the russians are going to march at the closing ceremony under their own National Flag despite this horrific behavior. The olympic self policing system has had other catastrophes as well. Most of the 43 lifetime bans i spoke about before imposed by the ioc have been overturned by the highest court in the sport which is called the court of arbitration for sport. Allowing most of the athletes to compete again but most egregiously, russia has been permitted, remarkably, to stonewall the ioc and wada. Despite almost on a daily basis protesting their innocence and decrying the doping scandal as a byproduct of some western conspiracy in which i assume, i must be a conspirator. Russia refuses to turn over Critical Evidence that was ordered by wada more than a year ago. Why . If they are innocent, and theres no doping system, then why not turn over the evidence . Let me unpack that all of it for you when you talk about the evidence. There are a lot of things that can be manipulated within the doping laboratory but theres one thing that cant be. The testing equipment itself, as long as youre not running a pretest, reports the results of the test on a Computer Drive for the testing equipment and you cant change that. There is no way to alter it, no way to fake it, no way to change it at all. Its a permanent record. And wada told russia to turn over that data, and they have refused. If thats not an admission of guilt, i really dont know what is. Lets ask another question. As a russian accepted a scintilla of responsibility for this, despite the fact at least not now with respect to 11 athletes the bands were, in fact, upheld by the arbitration . This coming from peter, leading member of russias lower house of their legislature, typifies russias reaction to im going to quote. We will apologize. We will apologize to thomas bach who prepared this report any russian athletes, so sweetly. We have nothing to apologize for, and neither do our athletes. And whats more, putting aside the lack of any acceptance of responsibility or contrition, russia has sought to retaliate against dr. Rodchenkov again and again. Only, by the way, after his cooperation was revealed excuse me. Russia indicted him twice for politically motivated crimes. Lets be clear. In order for this sort of system to exist, obviously many people id be involved. It couldnt have possibly been one man. No lone wolf couldve done all the things necessary in order for even a a system that was ls sophisticated to succeed. There has to be athletes participating, coaches participating, people swapping samples, people helping to cover it up. Russian not surprisingly singled dr. Rodchenkov out for these criminal charges, right . That shows the motivation. The motivation is to silence him. Russian officials have harassed his family, confiscated his property and even declared, and im going to quote, that he should be quote, shot as stalin would have done. And to discredit dr. Rodchenkov, even russian president Vladimir Putin has gotten in the game. On the one hand, accusing the fbi of drugging dr. Rodchenkov to elicit a false confession while at the same time calling dr. Rodchenkov an imbecile and mentally unstable. Now, i was an organized crime prosecuted for many years so im very used to seeing people who cooperate be discredited or attempted to be discredited by people that were there conspirator. So lets be clear about this. The u. S. Didnt pick dr. Rodchenkov. Russia did. They made him the director of the moscow lab. When opponents of a started an investigation of dr. Rodchenkov back in 2011, allegedly for distributing performanceenhancing drugs, which was his job, it was the kremlin that quashed those charges so that dr. Rodchenkov could continue the work that they had authorized. So russia picked this witness. Nobody from the west did. And to cap things off to make it extra sweet, just this week, dr. Rodchenkov, you are not really going to believe this unless youve seen in the newspaper, was sued in New York State Supreme Court for defamation for three of the russian athletes who had the most evidence against them in the mclaren report. In a lawsuit no doubt backed by the kremlin. And i will say just on a personal note i have read media reports that an owner of an nba franchise is helping to finance this frivolous lawsuit. And i hope that those reports are inaccurate. Because if an nba Franchise Owner is using nba revenue to finance a lawsuit to attack and silence a whistleblower who was trying to bring integrity back to sports, i think that every american and every basketball fan would be called by that. I certainly hope the nba is monitoring this closely because this sent a terrible message, a terrible message to the players, the fans and the kids that watch that team. So this whole litany of retaliation, right, spanning the last year and a half, which ive only just summarized, believe me, if you want as the questions ill give you 15 more examples. What has the ioc done . The ioc has power, right . The power is right now the russian Olympic Committee is suspended, and the ioc retained for itself in this man the ability to continue that suspension if russia didnt behave man. If it didnt honor the ioc is decision. So all the ioc has to do is to pick up the phone and call dr. Rodchenkov and say this ban will continue and these Olympic Games and future Olympic Games and less you leave our main witness alone. After all, hes testified, given affidavits, submitted evidence, has been corroborated. I think thats the least they can do is make a phone call. What has the ioc done . Nothing. They sat by and watch this abort behavior and done not a a singe thing to stop the russians aboard. So let me ask you a question. Do you think that embolden the russians when they act in this way and that one stops in . You tell me. Because according to press reports, assuming they are true, russia responded by retaliating against the ioc and wada, right . According to press reports they hack the computers. Delete the confidential documents and some russian government officials have promised to impose sanctions on ioc members and wada executive in retaliation for the ban. Does that sound like behavior that deserves its place among other nations upholding olympic ideals . In the midst of all this, funny twists and turns of this case, no one wouldve guessed what would happen next. Because another whistleblower in the midst of this whole thing, not dr. Rodchenkov, that anyone had control, he doesnt know who it is, someone within russia leak a confidential database dating back before the sochi games that the moscow lab had been using to record all of the adverse will analytical findings before they make them disappear. This is exactly the evidence that russia would not produce. And a whistleblower disclosed it. Now, wada acted. Wada spent much time and ultimately authenticated it as a true and exact copy of whats called the limited database, the Laboratory InformationManagement System within the moscow laboratory. And ive been assured by wada that it is analyzing thousands and thousands of adverse analytical findings stored in that secret database, and it will disclose the identities of those athletes to the International Federations. And if the International Federations did not bring cases against every single one of those athletes, alvin said wada would do it. And i believe him. So wada has acted. But after the disclosure of the lims database, what did the ioc do and say . Its been crickets, simply crickets. Not a thing. The ioc didnt even disclose the lims database to sports arbitration despite the fact that as ive been told there are ten or 12 athletes whose appeals are being heard to an adverse analytical findings that had already been identified in the lims database pixel wouldve been critical corroborating information that the ioc did nothing. So despite the overwhelming proof of statesponsored doping system and epic obstruction and retaliation, ioc president thomas bach still plans to lift the ban, the suspension really, of the russian team. And so its Little Wonder at this point that information about infighting within the ioc executive committee has started to leak. And theres been really one critically important and unfortunate casually to that infighting. Because theres a british ioc member, and he, together with another legendary former ioc member, have been the two lone voices willing to stand up to thomas bach complicity. And for reasons that will all figure out whether its true or not, has been ejected from the Olympic Games in south korea. On the eu of the ioc making a decision whether or not to lift the suspension of the russian team. So one of the surely dissenting voices within the ioc has now been silenced. What does this all mean . Knowing can seriously argue that the cowardly and indecisive actions of the ioc are appropriate, will deter cheaters, or are fair to clean athletes, olympic sponsors or fans. No one can seriously debate the fact that ioc hes conflicted policing system is broken and is not working iocs. And as a result of that, who is defrauded . Everybody knows what fraud is, right . Who is defrauded . Clean athletes, right . Who invested substantial physical, emotional and Financial Investments in their training, sponsors, most of whom by the way have and the doping provisions in the contract that they make the athletes on including the russian athletes. Advertisers, International Federations, and every single country including the United States who contributes to wada fairly large budget. I want to put the pain and something because i think acceptance of responsibility is extraordinarily important and is the measure of character of a person or a country, and the sad truth of it is, america is not blameless either. Weve had our share of cheaters. We that one systematic doping system in a cycling team relatively recently. Im proud of the fact that we stand up, point out, and convicted those individuals, and make sure that they are exposed, no matter how important they are, no matter how powerful they are, and no matter how much money can be made off of their performances. But we shouldnt take victory laps and we shouldnt realize that this is a bit of a glass house. But at the same time the United States has been a leader in the fight for clean sports, and the u. S. Antidoping administration and its president have been liens on this issue. And if congress does anything as result of the socket i hope they will increase the budget for usada so usada can do more of the good what it is doing to call out cheaters within the United States and cheaters within the olympic and international communities. But honestly, the United States can and in my view do more to fight for clean athletes and protect whistleblowers. There are a country such as austria, italy, france and spain that it actually implemented criminal penalties for doping. Because this is all about deterrence. Its a very simple concept. We learned it when we are children. If our actions are punished, then to conduct will stop. That is the basis of our criminal justice system. We dont have laws to punish doping as a criminal violation. We have many different conspiracies that cover many different kinds of fraud, but not fraud that embodies doping. And this is true despite huge impact that International Doping as on both u. S. Athletes and use sponsors who are the main source of revenue for the olympics and many of the world events. So we need to change our language. We need to stop calling this doping, and call it what it is, doping fraud. This is doping fraud. Broad meaning someone pretends that they are clean when they are dirty. Its not implicit. They had signed certifications. They had signed contracts saying, confirming, certify that they are clean and they are dirty, and other people get harmed. Thats exactly what fraud is, and doping fraud should be the watchword in all of our discussions moving forward. But we could do more, right . I would be happy to work with this commission and propose the first doping fraud statute, but it cant be an ordinary statute. Its got to be a statute like the four corruption practices act. That allows u. S. Prosecutors to reach even Foreign Government officials who were involved in bribery is that have an impact here. And doping is no different. Congress should pass a doping fraud statute with a long armed provision that allows us to reach out of the United States and catch the cheaters that destroyed the lives of americas clean athletes and waste the resources of our businesses. One of my friends was talking to this idea had a very clever idea, and his id was just to amend the controlled substances act. The controlled substances act, something that was passed in 1970, a major drug luck in the United States but its not just drugs such as heroin or cocaine. It actually has on a schedule most of the worst performance enhancing drugs including all of the ones that were being used by russia. So we could simply just amend the controlled substances act to include a provision that has a long arm statute that says when theres conspiracy that affects u. S. Persons or corporations, and that conspiracy exists outside of the United States, because of the harm here we are going to prosecute it you. So thats my recommendation for the day, because let me tell you something. If we had a long arm statute for doping, i guarantee you as long as we used it, this problem would go away. But we also have to protect whistleblowers, like dr. Rodchenkov. Understand the guy risk everything to come here. And what does he have to show for it . Not much of a life at all. The ioc has proved utterly useless to do anything to stop the russians from trying to indict him, extradite him, harassing, discredit him, threaten him. If the ioc cant police itself, we need to pass legislation that encourages other whistleblowers to come forward, not just from russia but from wherever there are statesponsored doping systems. So part of this doping fraud statute should a whistleblower protections that provide for legal assistance, immigration status, job placement, and of the kinds of support. And as importantly, provides tools for prosecutors to go after the people that are retaliating against the witnesses. Because let me tell you something. If you were in the United States and you try to retaliate against a witness, that is a federal crime. It should be no less of a crime because someone who is physically here is being retaliated against by someone outside of the United States. The harm is here. Okay, so thank you for patiently sitting to my remarks. I would like to read a note from dr. Rodchenkov that he wrote and asked me to read to you. So that i may address this commission personally. As you know i had been cooperating with wada and the ioc to provide full and truthful details of russias statesponsored doping system in which i played an Important Role. I sincerely apologized for my actions which were directed by the minister of sports and his deputy minister. Many other highlevel officials, including the center for sports preparation, the russian at the doping agency, and the fsb played roles in the scheme along with many lowerlevel people. I actually have no choice but to play my part in this scheme but i hope you understand, i did much work to advance the goal of clean sport during my time as the director of the moscow antidoping century. But despite my extensive cooperation, i am in a very difficult position. Russia has openly retaliated against me, about that there can be no serious question. They had singled me out for prosecution, issued arrest warrants, are seeking a return to russia, and even calling for my execution. Two of my colleagues died under mysterious circumstances after the scandal unfolded in 2005, and i fully believe they were murdered to silence them. Had i not fled russia i am sure i wouldve experienced that same fate. The ioc has the power to stop russias retaliation against me. They could simply use the power they retained to continue the suspension of the russian Olympic Committee from participation in the ongoing olympics and future games until russia stops its efforts. The ioc has refused absolutely to use that power. In fact, the ioc seems ready to lift its suspension before the closing ceremony in these Olympic Games. Putting aside the direct impact on me, this sends a terrible message to future whistleblowers. Why should anyone come forward if the very guardians of clean sport leave their main witness, whose truth have repeatedly verified, twisting in the wind . If the ioc has proven completely ineffective at punishing countries that dont, it will only embolden cheaters. Ask at this commission to consider the Important Role that the United States could play in both encouraging more whistleblowers to come forward and creating meaningful deterrence for such epic cheating. Self policing by the ioc does that work, and wada lacks the resources, tools and independence to solve these problems. I believe the United States has played a leadership role, but cant and should play an even more forceful role in the fight for clean sport and the protection of whistleblowers. Thank you very much for your time and attention, and i will stay for any questions. [applause] thank you very much for your powerful remarks, and a Bulletin Board working on legislation with you. Im going to ask jim a couple of questions, although a conversation and they will open the floor to the audience so please start considering your questions. When i calling you to ask a question, but the stage name and organization. We will bring in microphones. Please speak into the mic since were being broadcast. To get us started, jim, during the remarks one question kept ringing in my mind and that was, what is going on with the ioc . Again and again you said its not working, its networking, its networking. Why is that . Is it not working here is a lack of deterrence . Whats going on . Whether or not the ioc intends this or not, these decisions look corrupt. [inaudible] im sure i am not being it must be difficult to balance we need people to hold these competitions, you need big countries to hold them. You need the revenue that is necessary sorry. Could you hear me now . Could you meet before . No problem. Im sort repeat myself but i said before that whether this is the intent or not, the actions of the ioc look either corrupt, complicit or at best in that. I dont think thats completely fair in the sense anschutz difficult to balance the pressures on the one hand, doping, punishing dopers put on the other hand, leading large countries to host the game, to fund the games can to do all the things that are necessary to make the olympics go. But we have to have one standard of justice. There cant be one standard of justice for kuwait and another standard of justice for russia or america for that matter. So if they are going to punish countries that impact the independence of the Olympic Committees and the labs, they have to punish those countries equally. Thats why taking the only rational explanation for these decisions is corruption, complicit or ineptitude and i dont know which one it is. Thank you. My second question concerns the other massive International Sports association in the will and thats fifa. Despite the fact that the russian team has been banned from the pyeongchang olympics, were looking at the world cup in sochi next year. So is it a coordination issue . Do these organizations not speak to one another . Is this another case of complicity and potential corruption . I think the problems that fifa has been having with corruption are now well known. Theres been a trial in brooklyn where its been proved there are other investigations going on. With respect to what dr. Rodchenkov knows about russian soccer, i said publicly that he can confirm that the russian football team, or soccer team as we know it, was protected by the statesponsored doping system and in particular but theres a a pending investigation going on. Im not sure if its a credible investigation, but hes certainly going to cooperate with fifa with respect to that investigation. On your larger question, i dont really know, but what i can say is corruption is not a long game strategy. It is not a long game strategy take the not in this day and age where all over the spectrum of issues that are being faced in the world, people are being empowered to step forward and tell the secrets. We see in the me too movement, thank god. We sit in so many other areas and well see it in doping. The number of investigations of International Sports agencies that are not ongoing is dizzying. So if you want of a longterm gain you want to be viable, they should stop the corruption, or even the appearance of corruption. Because with all of these issues swirling around, to have the world cup in sochi of all places, since the terrible message to the world. Great, thanks. Let me ask a final question, and thats in your conversations with dr. Rodchenkov have you spoken to at all about the incentive for nation to dope . On income it seems to me like in the short term we can all imagine you want to win if you competitions but it does seem like the risk reward ratio is way out of whack. You get caught and i cant tell you about the private conversations that obviously but i can to he said publicly. And he thinks this is unique in russia because of the power of the sport in russia. And he believes and i know that he believes because i seemed agony on his face as he describes this, that the sochi success that brought Vladimir Putin from epic low Approval Rating to incredibly high Approval Rating emboldened russia to invade the ukraine and annex crimea. Easy writer is yvonne . I dont know. But what i do know is again doping is not a a longterm ga. Its a shortterm gain. I just hope one of the powerful messages of the story, whether the doping is greater in the United States or it is occurring in in the western country or any other eastern bloc country, the day of reckoning is coming. Thanks so much. We will take questions from the audience now. Please wait until you see the mic and if you could state your name and organization. My name is david larkin, im a International Sports and