Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed the country's former anti-doping chief-turned-whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov is working under the control of US special services.
The scandal over the 2014 Sochi Olympics, triggered by revelations made by Rodchenkov, is part of a broader doping affair that has led to the suspension of Russia's anti-doping agency RUSADA, the country's athletics federation and Paralympic Committee.
Putin also said during his year-end news conference that the doping scandal had been fuelled deliberately before Russia's presidential election due in March next year.
He also said that both global anti-doping body WADA and the International Olympic Committee were working under duress.
