As reported in the reasoning part of the case published on the website of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), Tutberidze publicly confirmed that meldonium was given to Russian athletes to restore and support the heart muscle, and since the drug was banned in 2016, trimetazidine was used as a similar effect.
On January 29, CAS suspended Valieva for four years for violating anti-doping rules. On December 25, 2021, at the Russian Championship, she tested positive for trimetazidine. According to the Federal Medical and Biological Agency (FMBA), the skater took about 60 medications, and the steroid ecdysterone was also found in the doping test.
Earlier, RT columnist Elena Vaitsekhovskaya spoke out about Valieva’s disqualification after the publication of the reasoning part of the CAS decision.