Comment by elmo2you | Hacker News Reader

Comment by elmo2you | Hacker News Reader

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That's one perspective. Another one is that the person who is hailed a whistleblower in the USA (Rodchenkov), may himself have quite a (highly questionable, if not blatantly criminal) history of active involvement in doping activities, and may have fled Russia because the net was already closing up around him. This story could of course be all just a smear campaign against the man. However, it's rather hard to tell, since verifiable info appears hard to come by. Still, I'd rather not blindly believe the man on his own word, considering what is known about him. I also did read somewhere (but was unable to verify) that the RUSADA data that has been tempered with (the reason for this WADA ruling), allegedly may have been modified from a US based IP address, with a user account of a close associate of Rodchenkov (Migachev, who also fled to the USA). Again, this could be all a smear campaign or damage control. Still, I'd rather not judge either way, before knowing the actual validity of these allegations. Lately, the USA sure does not have a very clean slate themselves, where it comes to their involvement/corruption of supposedly independent international organizations, aiming to pursue blatently anti-Russian political policies.

This is exactly what the Russian government would want you to do with this: question everything and everyone. You seem to at least admit that you were unable to verify some outrageous claims that the US has planted evidence against Russia. It has been proven time and time again that Russia doesn't shy away from systematically cheating in major sport competitions. This entirely adds up with my experience growing up there: status and perceived image have always ranked higher than truthfulness or honesty in Russian culture.

Also, based on your comment history, I'm not necessarily doubting your truthfulness but you do seem to be pushing a focussed agenda in your comments.

Your response sounds fair enough to me. One small thing I would like to add to it though. I'm actually not a fan of Russia (for a number of personal reasons). But I equally dislike how the things you mentioned about Russia are (in my opinion) also true in Europe and the USA. That is, at least on any meaningful level of power/influence. It might be better hidden under a thick layer of persistent cultural brainwashing, but that's about it for the difference. You could even argue that the reason why people in Russia don't even pretend to be honest, is because they already learned that they will get away with everything anyway (something powerful people in the US and EU are increasingly learning also, with increasingly blatant corrupt behaviour as a consequence).

Sure, the Russian government will welcome any form of friction within the US or EU, and probably will not hesitate to create it when they see a chance. But there is no need for any Russian propaganda to seed such doubts, because the US and EU do a marvellous job just on their own there.

Also, anyone who doesn't question the validity of something, once there appears to be any discrepancy (even if that turns out to be a false alarm), is either a blind believer or an idiot. The only agenda that I "push" is to indeed question everything. After having witnessed first hand what some US and EU based "humanitarian" organization do in other parts of the world, I think I have very good reasons to be extremely sceptical about any expansion of their "freedom and democracy".

WADA is not an American organization. How does Canada figure into your conspiracy theory (literally, your theory about a conspiracy)?

1st: I do not claim a conspiracy. I just am rather sceptical when it comes to believing anyone with a potentially (if not likely) sketchy history, who all of a sudden grows a moral conscience that he or she apparently didn't require before. Especially if that somehow nicely aligns with the political agenda of powerful people in a country they seek refuge, from either prosecution or persecution elsewhere.

2nd: WADA might be situated in Canada, but that will not prevent the US from trying to influence (or even infiltrate) the organization. Either way, WADA has already received its share of criticism. I don't know enough to judge if that's information warfare against WADA, or if the organization has indeed become a US puppet as some do claim.

3rd: anyone who has been following this whole thing for a while, should also have noticed that some professional athletes from other countries appear to be getting an easier treatment than Russian ones. Could just be framing in the media, but could also be a real thing. I could honestly not tell. Still, when it comes to counting actual verified accounts of deliberate misinformation, I think that the US media is currently a lot more high on propaganda than Russian media (though neither are innocent, obviously).

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