Several years ago this blog looked at the award of the track world championships to Belarus, Europe’s last dictatorship. It was a decision taken with input from a senior UCI official with a significant financial interest in a giant construction project in the capital, Minsk. Whether coincidental or not, the awarding of the worlds served to highlight the substantial conflict of interest between the UCI’s sporting interests and the business activities of Igor Makarov, the Russian oligarch behind the now-defunct Katusha team who sits at the UCI’s top table, the Management Committee. Following that another blog post looked at Turkmenistan and how Makarov had extensive business interests there and noted the UCI was often visiting too.
It’s time to review this Turkmenistan angle because it is continuing today. Having pointed out issues in a tweet the other day, here’s a blog post to explore the issues in detail…
