Putin: We don’t approve of WADA hackers, but information they leaked raises questions

The information leaked by the group behind the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) hack raises lots of questions, as it revealed that some healthy athletes were allowed to use doping while the whole Russian Paralympic team was banned only on suspicion, Vladimir Putin has said.

"We don’t approve of what hackers do, but what they’ve done is definitely of interest to the international community, especially the sports community,” the Russian president said, as cited by RIA Novosti.

Read more

Russia offers to help WADA with doping hack investigation

“It raises a lot of questions. It turns out that healthy athletes legally take medications that are prohibited for others, and the people who obviously suffer from serious illnesses and severe disabilities are being banned from the Paralympics only on suspicion of using some kind of drugs,” he added.

Earlier this week, hacktivists from the cyber group ‘Fancy Bears’ released files revealing that top world athletes had received the green light from WADA to take banned substances.

Prominent US sports stars - including tennis players Serena and Venus Williams, multiple Olympic gymnastics champion Simone Biles, and basketball player Elena Delle Donne - were mentioned among those who had received exemptions from WADA.

The group later expanded its list of those who had been allowed to take banned substances, adding documents on over two dozen athletes from the US, Germany, Britain, Czech Republic, Denmark, Poland, Romania and Russia.

WADA has released a statement confirming and condemning the cyber-attack.

The whole Russian Paralympic team is missing out on the ongoing Paralympic Games in Rio, Brazil, after the International Paralympic Committee followed WADA’s advice and handed a blanket ban to the country over its alleged doping program.