(ATR) Former IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch tells Around the Rings that charges he served as an intelligence source for the KGB in the 1970s are "crazy".
Just-published in Russian, "The KGB Plays Chess" by historian Yuri Felstinsky, contends that Samaranch, while ambassador to the Soviet Union, was approached by authorities about artworks and antiques he had sent to his home in Spain, possibly in violation of the law.
The book claims that Samaranch agreed to help the Soviets with intelligence in exchange for overlooking the export violations, which might have caused troubles for him with Spanish government.
Speaking to ATR by telephone from his office in Barcelona, Samaranch called the allegations “a joke”.
"They are crazy," he says.
Samaranch says he did not know Vladimir Popov, an ex-lieutenant colonel for the KGB, whom the book names as the contact with Samaranch.
"That was 30 years ago, I met many people, but I do not remember him," says Samaranch.
He rejects an assertion in the book that the KGB helped obtain the support of Eastern-bloc IOC members in 1980 for his election as IOC President.
"That was maybe 10 or 12 votes. I won almost 50 votes."
Actually Samaranch won the election with 44 votes. Marc Hodler, his nearest rival in the four-man race, polled just 23 votes.
Samaranch served as IOC vice president and chief of protocol during his ambassadorship to Moscow from 1977 to 1980. He easily won election as IOC President in 1980 with a 23 vote margin in a four-man race.
Samaranch noted with some frustration news reports about the book that link his status as Moscow ambassador with the government of Fascist dictator Francisco Franco.
“I represented the King of Spain,” says Samaranch. “Franco died in 1975.”
“On one side I am accused of being with the fascists. On the other side I am now with the communists. This is crazy.”
Samaranch, 89, served as IOC President from 1980 to 2001 when he was succeeded by Jacques Rogge.
A book published in China last month written by a former minister of sport charges that Chinese support for Rogge’s election at the 2001 IOC Session was predicated on Rogge backing Beijing as the host for the 2008 Olympics, also decided at the 2001 IOC Session.
The IOC denies that such a quid pro quo was in effect.
To subscribe to Around the Rings Click HereWritten by Ed Hula.
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