The US Department of Justice has opened an investigation into the doping case in Russia - NYT

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The New York Times, which last week published material on anti-doping rule violations during the Sochi Olympics, announces the start of an investigation by the US Department of Justice.

According to publications, the doping case is handled by the prosecutor’s office of the Eastern District of New York, and all those who could have unduly benefited from the use of doping, including athletes, coaches, civil servants and anti-doping authorities, can be the object of investigation.

Suspects, among whom are the leading Russian sportsmen-winners of the Games-2014 in Sochi, may be charged with criminal conspiracy and fraud.

The federal prosecutor’s office for the Southern District in New York has so far refused to comment on information about the initiated investigation.

In the past, US federal courts have tried cases against citizens of other countries residing outside the US, if their activities show an arbitrarily small connection with American jurisdiction. For example, the use of services of American banks.

Among those to whom the attention of American prosecutors is riveted is the former head of the Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA, Grigory Rodchenkov, who, in an interview with the New York Times, spoke about his participation in a large-scale operation to substitute athletes for doping.

Russian officials, including President Putin's press secretary Dmitry Peskov, call Rodchenkov's statements "the slander of a defector," citing the fact that the specialist left the country after leaving RUSADA and moved to the United States.

However, Rodchenkov, 57, who lives in Los Angeles, has no plans to leave the United States, despite possible legal proceedings. And even more so - to return to Russia.

"I have no choice. “I am between two fires,” says Rodchenkov.

According to the New York Times, the investigation was initially conducted by the FBI, but the case has now been transferred to the Eastern District Attorney's Office in Brooklyn - the same one that brought corruption charges against dozens of FIFA officials last year.

The US federal government rarely deals with doping cases. Such an investigation was carried out, for example, against cyclist Lance Armstrong, but the case never came to court. Armstrong eventually ended up disqualifying the US anti-doping agency, USADA, for life.

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