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Yesterday the Kremlin dumped on their superstar Maria Sharapova for failing a drug test after her Australian Open quarter-final defeat by Serena Williams last January.
Their statement said Sharapova’s failure should not be considered a reflection on Russian sport.
So was it the Kremlin, or to be more precise the thoughts of president Vladimir Putin?
Either way, Russia has been a cesspool of lies.
Turn the clock back to 2010 when Russia was awarded the 2018 FIFA World Cup, and Qatar the 2022 – neither decision passed the smell test.
Disgraced former FIFA president Sepp Blatter eventually admitted Russia and the USA were going to win the hosting jobs well before the vote was taken.
It was a done deal.
» The Roar’s Joe Frost on meldonium and what it does to athletes.
UEFA boss Michel Platini had a change of heart and threw his weight behind Qatar instead of the USA, and that’s where we are today.
Both decisions stink.
Putin showed his “class” by suggesting Blatter be awarded a Pulitzer Prize for all the good things he has done for the round ball sport throughout his career.
I can’t remember anyone found guilty of corruption and collusion ever being awarded a Pulitzer Prize.
But both Blatter and Platini have been awarded what they deserved – an eight-year ban from soccer worldwide.
If the new FIFA boss Gianni Infantino has any bottle, he would get the governing body to strip Russia of the 2018 World Cup and award it to England with a plethora of major stadiums already operative.
Then strip Qatar of the 2022 Cup and award it to Australia with plenty of time to update facilities.
The next to make a positive stand against Russian lies must be the relatively new IOC boss Thomas Bach.
Last year it surfaced Russian athletes were constantly taking banned substances because knew they were either never going to be tested by corrupt officials, or the damning evidence would be conveniently ‘lost’ if WADA was around.
IAAF president Sebastian Coe has banned Russian track and field from the Rio Olympics until Russia can prove it’s conforming with WADA guidelines.
There’s no way the Russians can prove they are telling the truth between now and August 5 when the Rio Games begin, so Thomas Bach can step in and ban Russia from the Games altogether.
And why?
Now we have meldonium which is Maria Sharapova’s problem for not taking any notice of five emails since October last year. The emails warned meldonium was about to be banned that became effective January 1.
Nor did champion Russian speed skater Pavel Kulizhniken take any notice of the emails, or ice dancing champion gold medallist Ekaterina Bobrova and her partner Dmitry Soloviev, both have been banned from the world championships in Boston later this month.
The more we read about it, it stands to reason dope cheating in Russian sport is endemic across the board.
“Not so,” was Dmitry Svishchev’s reply who has accused the western world of unfairly targeting Russian sport.
Svishchev is head of the Russian parliamentary committee on sport, and he must be wondering when president Putin is going to knock on his door with a one-way ticket to Siberia.
So much for trying to prove communism is far stronger than those “decadent” democracies.
While Russia keeps cheating and telling lies, ban all their sports from international competition.
So what if president Putin spits he dummy, the world is used to that.