Anders Besseberg (72) is clear: He has not received money to cover doping, and is confident that the case will not end with a falling judgment.
“I have to say that this has not been nice days. I wish I had been without them, ” says Besseberg.
He shows VGs journalist into his living room at the farm at Vestfossen, Norway, a magnificent farm that has been in the family’s ownership since the 17th century. Ever since he got up from bed on Wednesday morning, the phone has rang. The 72-year-old has responded to most calls, but now he has switched to flight mode.
The recently resigned IBU president (as long as the investigation is ongoing), who was accused of corruption on Tuesday, believes it is important for openness. For this reason, he has been with journalists outside the main house on farm farms, which he took over with Wenche in 1988. He has stayed here for almost as long as IBU president (in 1992).
In connection with the investigation that is ongoing about him and IBU, it has been claimed that he drives around in beautiful cars and lives in a big house. The last is quite right, but he has other opinions about the car park.
– Lightning from clear sky
“I can declare that I drive around in three great cars. I have a BMW X5. It is a rental car. BMW is the Biathlon Federation’s main sponsor. Everyone at the office has a BMW. In addition, I have an old Daihatsu four-wheel drive that I bought used for 60,000 Nkroner (€ 5.946). My wife has a BMW that she has bought herself,” he says.
The statements made by Besseberg about the car park correspond with the information that VG has checked in the Norwegian Motor Vehicle register.
At the farm where Besseberg is now standing outside, the police suddenly appeared a few days ago. They would do a razzia at his private home.
“It was certainly like lightning from clear skyes,” says Besseberg.
The 72-year-old takes VG indoors, and sets himself up in the leather sofa. He points up on the wall and shows a stuffed lynx that he shot himself several years ago. Besseberg is an interesting hunter, and tells about both hunting trips and the 17 deers in his wood that he has been giving food throughout the winter.
He talks passionately about hunting, but he is most clearly when he is questioned about the alleged corruption.
Will get a lawyer
– Have you received money to cover over doping?
– No, I have not been asked about it eighter, and I have not gotten money for it.
– What do you say about the information that has come from Austrian police that they investigate possible bribery of NOK 2.3 million (€228.000) ?
- I know it’s a claim of $ 300,000 (€228.000). But in any case, this is no offer or money that I have received. I’m certainly sure of that.
– How did you experience the interrogations you had this week?
“I was able to read my rights and they informed me that I could get a lawyer, one I could appoint and they would take the bill. I said that I can not understand that I have any need for a lawyer. The questions they asked was not difficult for me to answer.”
– Are you going to engage a lawyer further?
– What is evidence and documentation is available at the office of these people (police) down in Vienna. They are available to me whenever I can, and then I will bring a lawyer. I will try to get an Austrian lawyer who has knowlegde about doping cases.”
No access to ADAMS
According to VG’s sources, Besseberg is to be accused of concealing 65 Russian doping cases since 2011. Which he is quite incomprehensible to.
He explains, among other things, that only four people in IBU have access to ADAMS, which is WADA’s message system for practitioners. He himself as president has not had access to ADAMS.
– Would it be possible to hide doping tests?
“I’ve been thinking a lot about this and that was also one of the questions I asked IBU’s doping expert. When a dopingtest is added to ADAMS, users have no ability to enter and remove or modify this data. When a positive or suspicious test comes to us, there’s no point in putting it away, because it’s in ADAMS already,” says Besseberg, and continues:
“I do not understand how it would be possible to hide 65 samples. But if WADA i0has proof that it has happened, then it must have happened. But with whom and how, I have no idea.”
Doping whistleblower Grigorij Rodtsjenkov has come up with blunt allegations against IBU, and the Russian has confirmed that he has provided information to WADA.
– Are you provoked when Grigorij Rodtsjenkov says to NRK that Russian biathlon skier’s blood pass has been sabotaged and manipulated?
– “Yes, I was f *** surprised. I did not think it could be possible. Therefore, I had to contact my board member who is working with this and the employees who work with this daily. I have to say, that I do not understand how he (Rodtsjenkov) can throw out accusations. What he claims, I can not believe, based on what I know today. In any case, I have not hidden positive doping samples or blood values for the biological passport to the athletes.”
– 100 percent safe
Besseberg claims IBU still investigates Russians mentioned in the McLaren report and that IBU’s Swiss lawyer has trouble getting in touch with Rodtsjenkov.
-” An excuse is that he (Grigorij Rodtsjenkov) is afraid of his own life. But if a journalist asks for an interview, he sets himself down in front of you as we are sitting now. It can not be credible. That he says something in an interview is not as binding statement. Then you can talk more freely.”
The investigation currently is ongoing, is among other things linked to the World Championship in Biathlon in Hochfilzen in 2017, where it is claimed that IBU should have let doping-taked athletes start. Under Austrian law, this is not legal, since practitioners have unjustifiably received price-money they would not have had.
Just this, Besseberg was asked about during his questions from the norwegian police.
“At least I can not understand that it may have been a doped Russian athlete who has been granted permission to start in Hochfilzen. Then there must be statements from Rodtsjenkov, then, that this and that practitioner he knew was doped?”
– You feel confident that it has not happened?
“I feel 100 percent confident that it may not have happened.”
– Do you fear that you may have had unfaithful people in the system below you?
“I’m not afraid, nor do I suspect it. But I can not guarantee that it has not happened.”
– New management
– Do you feel confident that this whole case will not end in a recurring judgment?
– Yes, I have no reason to believe this today.”
Besseberg believes Russia is facing a massive doping problem.
“– They have systems that may stimulate doping. You have regions where governors are. I know that, to some extent, skiers are bought and sold the same way football clubs do. These regions are so far from Moscow that they do not have such a great opportunity to have full control of what is happening there. There are opportunities, ” he says.
Besseberg has also raised questions about their price system with Russia.
“It can actually stimulate doping. If an athlete wins an Olympic gold, he is more or less secured for the rest of his life. Then it also drips on coaches and doctores around the athlete. Perhaps the practitioner will not do doping himself, and maybe he will not know about it once – but will be told that “this B12 syringe you needs.” Then it may contain EPO. This is probably one of the first things we need to do something with,” he says.
Further:
– New leadership in the Russian Biathlon Federation will be elected. I have asked them to bring in new people into their board, as is “clean” in all ways. Today, there are people in their board which are suspected. I mean they must get a new person as president.”
Source: VG.no; Original article in norwegian.
ANTI-DOPING WORLD 