How the leader of Grooming Biathlon paid for Russia

Although he did not cooperate with the biathlon investigation, Besseberg admitted to police that he had only been provided with a prostitute in Moscow on one occasion between 2010 and 2014, but denied knowing specifically who sent the woman, claiming only that it was “someone, probably from the organizing committee,” the report said.

Investigators said they had evidence the incident was not the only such arrangement made, and Besseberg confirmed to police he had sex with other women at various events. of biathlon. But the report linked Besseberg’s acceptance of Russian gifts and favors to his actions and public statements on behalf of Russia, and suggested that “justifies an inference that he did so in exchange for an illicit reward. , and / or because it has been compromised ”.

“In the opinion of the committee,” the report concludes, “Mr. Besseberg’s support for Russian interests went far beyond this general concern, and far beyond all rational limits.

The report cited Besseberg’s repeated efforts to downplay and publicly ridicule the evidence provided to investigators by one of the masterminds of the Russian doping program, Grigory Rodchenkov, and to downplay and dismiss the conclusion of a World Anti-Doping Agency investigation. which then led to the ban from Russia. of world sport.

Yet even after the widespread doping conspiracy was exposed and then corroborated by investigators, Besseberg pushed his executive body to ignore calls from anti-doping organizations to sports federations to review their anti-doping measures and stop attributing events. to Russia. In 2016, for example, Besseberg told biathlon leaders that they can and should grant the 2021 world championships in Tyumen, Russia. An informant, according to the report, said Besseberg stood up before the vote and instructed delegates in no uncertain terms to “vote for Russia.”

Later, when Russia’s participation in the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea was criticized, Besseberg toured the biathlon union executive board to lobby on behalf of Russian biathletes, the report said, arguing that the Russian Biathlon Federation and its athletes were blameless in the doping scandal and should be allowed to participate in the Games.