The charge is precise, documented, relentless. “Like the Russian oligarchs who have managed to survive so far, ours has followed the rule to the letter: money and power versus unconditional loyalty and political loyalty to Vladimir Putin”, explain German journalists Johannes Aumüller and Thomas Kistner. Their ? Thomas Bach, 70, head of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since 2013, presented as “the oligarch” of the Russian head of state, in a book-investigation (Putins Olygarchdtv, 320 pages, 17.99 euros, untranslated), published a little less than three months before the opening ceremony of the Paris Games (July 26-August 11).
The work of the two reporters from South German Zeitung, Munich’s major center-left daily, is the result of several years of research and interviews. It shows that Thomas Bach has long supported Moscow, despite the repeated denials of the main person concerned and the recent crisis between the Kremlin and the Olympic movement, which suggests that the two parties are now irreconcilable; to the point that Russia is increasing the organization of parallel events, such as the BRICS Games, in June, and the Friendship Games, in September.
Johannes Aumüller and Thomas Kistner presented their opus on Monday April 29 in the Bavarian capital, emphasizing that it could be read as a “Vademecum of corruption at all levels of global sport governance”of which he retraces with as much meticulousness as greediness previous episodes, most of which are known, but with fewer details.
Thus the saga of the German equipment manufacturer Adidas, presented as the original matrix of corruption. This “real sneaker CIA”, which used all intelligence techniques to establish its power and weave its networks, particularly in the communist bloc USSR-GDR during the last two decades of the Cold War. A young lawyer – Olympic gold medalist in team foil in Montreal in 1976 – is part of the system, in the entourage of Horst Dassler, the son of Adolf Dassler, founder of the brand: his name is Thomas Bach.
Alfons Hörmann, a key witness
The centerpiece of the book is the testimony, under oath, of Alfons Hörmann, former president of the German Olympic Committee, at the head of which he succeeded Mr. Bach in 2013. He told the authors a story that has remained until now secret, which establishes the long-standing proximity between the IOC president and the Russian autocrat, as well as the bases of the pact sealed between them.
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