MOSCOW, January 29. /TASS/. The United States has intensified efforts to undermine upcoming international sports tournaments to be hosted by Russia, pinning its main hopes on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) as a vehicle for discrediting the events, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Director Sergey Naryshkin said.
"The US administration has stepped up efforts to undermine coming sporting events in Russia. It is pinning most hopes in this regard on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and personally on its president, Witold Banka," the SVR quoted Naryshkin as saying in a statement.
"According to updates the [SVR] has been getting, the US administration is seriously concerned that the campaign it has launched to isolate Russia in elite sports is faltering," the Russian intel chief added.
International sports federations have proven increasingly unwilling to take the White House’s position into account when it comes to deciding whether to allow Russian athletes to participate in competitions, Naryshkin noted. "‘Too large a number’ of countries in the Global South have shown a desire to take part in the Games of the Future, the BRICS Sports Games and the World Friendship Games, which are to be hosted by Russia this year," he emphasized.
While Banka has been racing to discredit the upcoming international tournaments being organized by Russia and some foreign athletes who are planning to take part in Russia-hosted sporting events report being threatened with "career suicide" warnings ahead of this summer’s Paris Olympics, the overtly pro-American steps by Banka that jeopardize the development of global sports are increasingly being met with irritation among professional athletes, the SVR director said. "Countries fatigued by attempts to politicize global sports are seeking to bolster their sovereignty in sports, including in formulating their own national anti-doping legislation," Naryshkin concluded.