Four-Year Doping Ban on Athletes Should Scare All Russians
Olympic stars having to compete under a neutral flag is another example of how Putin will do everything to protect the state but not citizens.
He doesn’t have to worry about any doping bans.
Photographer: Alexei Nikolsky/AFP/Getty Images
Not even a four-year ban on competing under the national flag and hosting major athletic competitions can force Russia — that is, its political leadership and sports functionaries — to admit they’ve done anything wrong. That’s a warning not just to athletes, but to all Russians: They’re hostages to their leaders’ bungling, pig-headedness and siege mentality.
The ban was imposed on Monday by the executive committee of the World Anti-Doping Agency. This was expected after WADA discovered earlier this year that the database of a Moscow antidoping lab, handed over to it for inspection, had been altered to erase positive test results. WADA compared the database to an earlier version, handed over by a whistle-blower, likely the lab’s former head, Grigory Rodchenkov, who lives in the U.S. under witness protection.