Rudkovskaya: “When I saw Tutberidze’s message, I thought it was fake. Every line exudes arrogance.

Co-owner of Plushenko’s Angels Academy, producer Yana Rudkovskaya criticized the honored coach of Russia Eteri Tutberidze who she says should admit guilt in the figure skater’s case Kamila Valieva.

On Monday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) suspended Valieva for four years for violating anti-doping rules. The court release noted that the skater was unable to provide convincing evidence that the violation was unintentional. The disqualification period begins on December 25, 2021. The International Skating Union (ISU) announced that all of the athlete’s results from the date of sample collection have been canceled. This also led to a review of the results of the 2022 Olympics team tournament, where the Russian team won. First place is now awarded to the American team, the Japanese are second and the Russians will receive bronze.

— When I saw Eteri Tutberidze’s message, I thought it was fake. Every line oozes arrogance, every line is literally “I don’t have to explain anything to you, I’m a victim too.” Seriously, Eteri Georgievna? Who are you the victim of? Another girl, an unhappy child whose career was ruined and whose dream was taken away from her? Her parents, who probably sacrificed everything to serve their daughter’s sporting career? Or the whole team, for whom this Olympic team gold medal is perhaps the first and last of their career?!

Why should we follow you in asking if anyone defended Kamila in court? Ask someone other than yourself! You were supposed to protect her! And before the court, and before the world, and before the country and before himself! The coach had to take responsibility for it. And from a professional point of view, and from a conceptual point of view, and from a human point of view. And not subtly, through the lines, place the blame on a girl in whose life a tragedy occurred. And yes, it is precisely a tragedy, the age of figure skaters is much shorter than the age of mentors. And for some reason they all burn like matches, but no one is warm – again and again there is an icy wall of arrogance, alienation and indifference around each of them. And the girls’ fire goes out, and at the foot of the ice floe remain the ashes of the hopes of those who believed.

How should we view this statement? What did the coach not know represented the interests of his “most gifted athlete”? This, in general, it seems to me, constitutes a devaluation of the talent of other girls. Each of them was talented, each shone and shines like a star.

I imagine what is happening in Camila’s soul, what is happening to her now. I’m really sorry for her. And I’m sorry to all the guys I know personally on the team, who also really suffered because of this story. I will say this as a person who helps in the development of children’s and youth sports, especially figure skating in Russia, I invest personal funds, like my husband, and I help a large number of athletes and coaches! But I also have something to say as a mother of four children, two of whom are athletes. If my daughter had experienced this, I would have behaved differently.

Are you serious when you say that no one knows anything? What does “they didn’t know” mean, how is that possible? I would like to read an adult’s confession about accepting responsibility – “we didn’t follow through, let’s leave the girl alone.” But what I see is a tragicomedy and a bad production of the good old play “It’s not my fault, he came himself,” Rudkovskaya wrote on her Telegram channel.

Earlier on Wednesday, Tutberidze released a statement on her social media in which she questioned the competence of the lawyers who represented Valieva’s interests at CAS. Honored figure skating coach of the USSR Tatyana Tarasova told that if she were Tutberidze, she would have admitted her guilt in the Valieva case in order to relieve the child of any responsibility.