Russia indicts doping whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov on trafficking charges

A Moscow court has indicted Grigory Rodchenkov, the former director of Russia’s national anti-doping laboratory and the man who fled to the U.S. and blew the whistle on Moscow’s state-sponsored doping program, in absentia for illegally trafficking dangerous substances, an anonymous source told the news agency Interfax on December 11.

Rodchenkov headed the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory from 2005 to 2015. When accused of destroying samples, he resigned and moved to the United States, where he became an informer for the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which because the basis for the International Olympic Committee’s decision to ban Russia’s national team from the 2018 Winter Games and to strip several Russian athletes of medals won in the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

Russian investigators have previously charged Rodchenkov with abusing the powers of his office, and in September 2017 he was arrested in absentia by a Moscow court. Rodchenkov is currently living in the FBI’s witness protection program.