The exclusion of Russian athletes from participation in the Olympics was not a disaster for Russia, пишет on the Vox website, British political scientist Mark Galeotti.
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“At first glance, this scandal should have caused an extremely awkward situation for a regime that closely monitors its image in the international arena. It also allowed us to notice some confusion in the government, which did not immediately decide how to react. But thanks to the fact that the Kremlin has plans and schemes for any eventuality, the Russian authorities dealt with this scandal much better than could have been expected. In fact, this scandal even brought extra points to Putin,” the author laments.
“The disqualification of the entire Russian Paralympic team, for example - no matter how justified it was - turned out to be a real gift for propagandists,” the expert continues. – The head of the Russian Paralympic Committee called it a serious violation of human rights. The representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, outdid herself, calling this decision “vile and inhumane”, “a betrayal of the highest standards of human rights that underlie the modern world.”
“Of course, Putin would prefer that the state doping program operating in Russia go undetected, and that a generation of drug-fuelled Russian athletes bring Russia a rich harvest of medals. However, the counterintuitive truth is that he managed to turn this scandal to his advantage. Thus, thanks to incredible luck and cunning, Putin managed to win a kind of victory in an obviously losing and, what’s even worse, a compromising situation,” sums up Galeotti.