NEW INVESTIGATION: RUSSIAN SPORT DID NOT REFORM—IT WENT FURTHER UNDERGROUND
New Christo Files investigation raises serious questions over continued Russian state and FSB control of sport and anti-doping
1 September 2026: A new investigation from Christo Grozev’s Christo Files raises alarming new evidence that the Russian sporting and anti-doping system exposed a decade ago has not been dismantled; it has adapted, moved further underground and may now be even more deeply connected to the Russian state and the Federal Security Services (FSB).
In 2016, the World Anti-Doping Agency commissioned an investigation led by Professor Richard McLaren that exposed an institutionalized doping conspiracy involving the Russian Ministry of Sport, Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), the Moscow Laboratory and Russia’s security service, the FSB.
Ten years later, the new investigation indicates that many of the same fundamental problems remain.
Among the most disturbing allegations is that Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) Director General Veronika Loginova, formerly head of anti-doping within the Russian Ministry of Sport, is the partner of Dmitry Kovalev, identified in the investigation as an FSB colonel associated with the security and oversight of the Signal Scientific Research Center and Russia's alleged doping system. Kovalev previously appeared as a doping expert defending Russia in proceedings concerning manipulation of the Moscow Laboratory data.
The investigation further alleges that the FSB's involvement now extends beyond doping, with current or former FSB officers operating throughout Russian sport, including within the Russian Olympic Committee, national sport federations and coaching structures.
The system McLaren exposed did not disappear. It adapted.
The Moscow Laboratory was shut down. RUSADA was suspended. Russia promised reform. But the new allegations suggest that the underlying relationship between Russian sport, the state, anti-doping and the FSB remains intact, and may have become more sophisticated and difficult for international authorities to detect.
This evidence demands immediate scrutiny from the International Olympic Committee, International Paralympic Committee, World Anti-Doping Agency, International Federations and National Anti-Doping Organizations.
Russia should not be restored as a full member of the Olympic and Paralympic Movement until these allegations have been independently investigated and there is credible evidence that Russian sport and anti-doping are genuinely independent from state and security service control.
The question for international sport is simple: if nothing fundamentally changed, why is Russia being allowed back?
The Christo Files Video: The Secret Agents Behind Russia’s Olympic Doping Machine - YouTube