The verdict is in, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has officially banned Russia from the 2018 Winter Olympics for systematic, state-backed doping. The state-run Russian propaganda machine has already denounced the move as an attack on the country from the West, one allegedly designed to incite revolution and Putin’s removal from power. And Western outlets like the New York Times have been quick to declare that Moscow faces its “largest international sporting crisis since the Soviet era,” posing a thorny political problem for Vladimir Putin on the very week that he finally declared his intention to run for another …read more
Source: The American Interest
