Russia concedes officials ran Olympic doping program, but denies Putin and his associates were involved

[TomSea]

Russia concedes officials ran Olympic doping program, but denies Putin and his associates were involved

Rebecca R. Ruiz, The New York Times
Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2016

In this Sunday, Feb. 23, 2014 file photo, athletes pass by the bell during the men's 50K cross-country race at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia Gregorio Borgia / Associated Press

MOSCOW — Russia is for the first time conceding that its officials carried out one of the biggest conspiracies in sports history: a far-reaching doping operation that implicated scores of Russian athletes, tainting not just the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi but also the entire Olympic movement.

Over several days of interviews here with The New York Times, the Russian officials said they no longer disputed a damning set of facts that detailed a doping program with few, if any, historical precedents.

“It was an institutional conspiracy,” Anna Antseliovich, the acting director general of Russia’s national anti-doping agency, said of years’ worth of cheating schemes, while emphasizing that the government’s top officials were not involved.

Continued At: http://www.nationalpost.com/m/wp/news/blog.html?b=news.nationalpost.com/sports/russia-concedes-officials-ran-olympic-doping-program-but-denies-putin-and-his-associates-were-involved&pubdate=2016-12-28