Russian doping scandal whistle-blower lives in fear of his life

The Russian national flag, right, flies next to the Olympic flag during the closing ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Photo / AP

The Russian doping scandal could be deeper than realised with 'thousands more cheats' still to be exposed in the secret computer files obtained by the World Anti-Doping Agency from the corrupt Moscow laboratory.

The lawyer representing whistle-blower Grigory Rodchenkov, who revealed the depth of institutionalised doping in Russia, says he has still not been contacted by FIFA even though his client has detailed knowledge of the doping programme of the Russian national football team.

Jim Walden says his client fears for his life, partly because the International Olympic Committee has not acted strongly enough in the face of Russian death threats to his client and the chief witness.

The IOC have rejected that claim. Walden's fears are because Rodchenkov has vital information on the extent of doping in Russian football.

He said: "Obviously FIFA have serious problems.

"Dr Rodchenkov would be in a very significant position to confirm that Russian soccer players were part of, and protected by, the state doping system, including the disappearing positive methodology outlined in the Richard McLaren report [WADA's investigation into the scandal]." Despite that, Walden says that he has still had no contact from FIFA. "My phone has not rung once."

Walden fears for his client's life because he is about to give his evidence by video link to the Court of Arbitration for Sport as Russian athletes appeal doping bans and says that the threat has increased since the IOC announced Russians could only compete as a neutral team at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

"Right after the ban I was contacted by US officials and told that I had to assume that there were Russian operatives in the US looking for him," he said.

"It's obviously terrifying for Dr Rodcheknov, but at the same time every indication from Russia is that they will do anything to stop him. He puts his safety at risk for the IOC, and the IOC respond by letting him twist in the wind."

Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) president Leonid Tyagachev has said that Rodchenkov, who is in witness protection in the US, needs to be 'shot for untruths,' while Russian authorities have attempted to have him extradited.

The IOC have rejected the claim that they are not doing enough to protect him and say they have contacted the ROC to make it clear that Rodchenkov deserves protection. But they added that they have no power to protect a witness currently under guard by US officials.

Walden argues that Russians' right to march in the closing ceremony at the Pyenochnag Games should be withdrawn while his client is being threatened.

"In an ideal world the IOC would put out a public statement saying that if Russia did not immediately suspend its efforts to retaliate against Dr Rodchenkov, the suspension will continue throughout the Games in South Korea. Period, full stop."

Any hopes the IOC or FIFA had that the scandal might be coming to an end look to be dashed with Walden revealing the data obtained from the Moscow laboratory last month by WADA had evidence of thousands of more cases where athletes were protected from recording positive tests.

"My understanding is that the LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System) database had a secret folder which some lab personnel set up because... they needed to keep an inventory for checking athletes," he said.

"My understanding is that there are thousands and thousands of PDFs in that secret folder that have dirty tests from athletes across the spectrum.

"What Thomas Bach fails to understand is this is not about Dr. Rodchenkov, or Putin, or even about Russian athletes. It is about the Olympic ideal. And once that ideal is abandoned or corrupted, it is dead, and the Olympics become a series of cheap carnival games."