The Kremlin turned to Valieva with the words “do not hide your face and walk proudly everywhere”

The Kremlin fully and unlimitedly supports the Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva in the doping scandal that has flared up around her. This was stated by the press secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov, TASS reports on Friday, February 11.

The official representative of the Kremlin also addressed the athlete with words of support. “Kamila, don’t hide your face, you are a Russian, walk proudly everywhere and, most importantly, speak out and defeat everyone,” Peskov said.

He added that the country’s authorities are convinced that in this case we are talking about “some kind of misunderstanding.” As Peskov explained, Russian officials have questions about the timing of processing Valieva’s samples.

The press secretary of the Russian leader urged to wait for the end of the proceedings and the official decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). In addition, he criticized the statement of the head of USADA that the US could prosecute the Russians involved in the Valieva case, stressing that the Kremlin opposes the cross-border application of US law, including in sports.

Earlier on February 11, the International Testing Agency (ITA) officially confirmed that Valieva’s December 25 doping test tested positive for the banned trimetazidine. After that, the IOC filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport against the decision of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency to lift the temporary suspension of the athlete from the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing. Her case must be considered before the start of the individual tournament at the Games.

At the same time, the United States called for the punishment of all those involved in the use of a prohibited drug by an athlete in accordance with the American “Rodchenkov Act”.

Together with the Russian national team, Valieva won the team tournament of the 2022 Olympics. She must take part in the individual tournament, which starts on February 15th.