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Situation with Valieva may derive from political reasons, lawmaker says

The most offensive fact is that young and incredibly talented Kamila Valieva became a target, Boris Paikin said

MOSCOW, February 10. /TASS/. The situation with Team ROC figure skater Kamila Valieva’s doping test may be due to political reasons, chairman of the physical culture and sports committee of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house, Boris Paikin told TASS.

"There was no doubt that against the background of global tensions the Olympics would be exploited for political reasons," Paikin said. "The most offensive fact is that young and incredibly talented Kamila Valieva became a target. Pay attention to the fact that Valieva won at the European [Figure Skating] Championships where there were no questions about doping."

"And only now, when the Olympic medals of our team and her personal victory are at stake, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) started speaking about doping once again. We remind WADA of its own World Anti-Doping Code, according to which it is impossible to strip gold medals from athletes competing in a team, unless one of them tested positive for a banned drug. However, the code is not applicable when it comes to humiliate Russian athletes. Regardless of the decision of the International Olympic Committee, I believe that the Russian Olympic Committee should draw some large-scale conclusions from this paid-for scandal," Paikin noted.

On Wednesday, InsideTheGames sports web portal reported later that the delay in the awarding ceremony of figure skaters could be linked to an alleged positive doping result among the Russian skaters. The Guardian stated that the drug found in an unnamed skater could not directly affect the performance.

InsideTheGames pointed out that the legal problems are connected to the age of the Russian athlete, who is 15 years old. According to WADA, those aged under 16 at the time of the alleged anti-doping violation cannot be found guilty.

Team ROC figure skaters won the team tournament. Olympic medals were claimed by Kamila Valieva, Mark Kondratyuk, Anastasia Mishina and Aleksander Galliamov, who compete in sports couples, as well as Victoria Sinitsina and Nikita Katsalapov. The US team came in second, while Japan took third place.