MOSCOW, December 13. /TASS/. Austrian police are accusing Russian biathletes of fraudulent schemes involving blood transfusions at the 2017 World Championship, Russian biathlete Alexander Loginov wrote on his Instagram page on Thursday.

The athlete posted negative results of his doping tests, noting that the prosecutors had asked that this not be released to the media. "Apparently, it’s not enough for a modern Russian athlete to pass doping tests in order to run. I was already in hot water for something I had not done, and yesterday I and others were accused of some fraudulent schemes with blood transfusions and something else."

"All this happened in February 2017 when I had run for just two months," Loginov said. "The most interesting thing is that all this is based on the questioning of 100 people and Grigory Rodchenkov personally. I’m 1,000% sure that all these accusations against me are not true and I want to ask a rhetorical question: Do Russian athletes not care whatsoever about their sports career or life just to do things like those that we are being accused of?"

Russian TV presenter Dmitry Guberniev earlier said that the police had accused several Russian biathletes and coaches of violating anti-doping rules at the 2017 Biathlon World Championships. Among the athletes accused of violating anti-doping rules are 2014 Olympic champion Anton Shipulin, Evgeny Garanichev and Alexander Loginov. The list also includes biathletes Alexey Volkov, Irina Starykh, former head coach of the Russian national team Alexander Kasperovich, doctors and massage therapists Artyom Kryntsilov, Alexander Selyavkin, Evgeny Shutov and Dmitry Topychkanov.

Guverniev later told Match TV channel that those on the list would have to provide explanations to the police on Thursday.

A source in Hochfilzen familiar with the case corroborated the information to TASS about the police visiting the team’s location. He noted though that none of the Russian athletes had been detained, adding that Garanichev, Loginov, Starykh and Topychkanov are currently in Hochfilzen.