The Kremlin’s Olympic Acrobatics
Following revelations about state-sponsored doping in Russia, the country barely avoided an outright ban from the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. But an outright ban could have produced even more dangerous consequences, by driving President Vladimir Putin to seek glory elsewhere.
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MOSCOW – Next Friday, Russians will be among the athletes gathering behind their national flags at the opening ceremony of the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro’s Maracanã Stadium. That was almost not the case. In the wake of revelations by the World Anti-Doping Agency about large-scale state-sponsored doping in Russia, the country avoided an outright ban by the skin of its teeth.