This post first appeared on Russia Insider
The Russian leadership has long been aware that the endless campaigning in the West against Russian sports is a government / deep state effort to hurt Putin's popularity.
It started with the ridiculous slandering of the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, and has continued non-stop since then. It is all a big lie, including the doping allegations that got Russia kicked out of the upcoming Seoul Olympics — we ran a piece by Phil Butler yesterday explaining some of the background dirty tricks.
Putin says here at a press conference two months ago that it is a ridiculous strategy, because it will backfire, which it obviously is. Anyone could have predicted that. Russians are insulted and angry, and rallying around their president.
This is an interesting short clip - it shows you what the leadership, and Putin, think is really going on.
This post first appeared on Russia Insider
Anyone is free to republish, copy, and redistribute the text in this content (but not the images or videos) in any medium or format, with the right to remix, transform, and build upon it, even commercially, as long as they provide a backlink and credit to Russia Insider. It is not necessary to notify Russia Insider. Licensed Creative Commons
Our commenting rules: You can say pretty much anything except the F word. If you are abusive, obscene, or a paid troll, we will ban you. Full statement from the Editor, Charles Bausman.