Leonid Bershidsky, Columnist

Why Putin Won't Admit the Truth About Doping

He would rather go into denial about athletes' use of banned substances than admit the entire system is rotten.

July 19, 2016 at 5:10 PM UTC

Leonid Bershidsky, formerly Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist, is a member of the Bloomberg News Automation Team. He recently published Russian translations of George Orwell’s “1984” and Franz Kafka’s “The Trial.”

The show must go on.
Photographer: Paul Gilham/Getty Images for BEGOC

Provide news feedback or report an error

Site feedback:

Take our Survey

This article is for subscribers only.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is changing his tune about the doping scandal that has engulfed Russian Olympic and paralympic athletes. As proof mounts that the use of performance-enhancing drugs is a state-sponsored system in Russia, Putin appears less and less willing to cooperate with international sports organizations and increasingly inclined to complain about political conspiracies against his country.

The issue is no longer just Russian athletes' participation in the Rio Olympics: It's about Putin's state being labeled as criminal. Putin's reaction under these circumstances -- as when a Malaysian airliner was shot down over eastern Ukraine two years ago and Russia and its proxies were strongly implicated -- is to deny, deny, deny.