Diary entries from the key whistleblower in the Russian doping scandal recount several meetings with powerful government officials, putting the spotlight firmly on whether Russia will be competing at the Winter Olympics.
The New York Times has obtained entries from the diary kept by Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of the Moscow anti-doping lab, who is now living in the United States under federal protection.
Included in the diary were details of discussions and meetings with Vitaly Mutko, who was the country's sports minister at the time and is now deputy prime minister.
The diaries are expected to be used as further evidence when the IOC decides Russia's fate for the upcoming Games in South Korea.
The IOC executive board meets next Tuesday to determine the fate of Russia's Olympic team, with the growing chance it may use the decision to further justify a complete ban.
In the diary, Rodchenkov makes note of the plan to swap dirty urine samples with clean ones at the Sochi Olympics in order to make sure that doped athletes would not get caught.
"There's no clear understanding of the plan, it's just a nightmare!" Rodchenkov wrote on January 29, 2014, less than two weeks before the Sochi Games began and one day after two top Russian biathlon athletes had been caught doping in Austria.
"Mutko is freaking out over biathlon, things are out of control and chaotic."
The plan, however, did work, and an IOC report compared it to "a Swiss watch with many small wheels working in common."
The report validated both the testimony of Rodchenkov and the conclusions drawn by Canadian professor Richard McLaren, who said the doping deception was directed by government officials.
Russia has denied its government directed the program and has blamed it on Rodchenkov and other individuals.
