Russia is banned from the Winter Olympics

It has taken several investigative reports across three years. But at long last the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided on December 5th to punish Russia for running a state-sponsored doping programme. Russian athletes hoping to compete in the winter games in February in Pyeongchang, South Korea, will have to do so under a neutral flag—after proving they are clean. The World Anti-Doping Agency provided extensive proof of cheating before the summer games in Rio in 2016, but the IOC still let Russia take a team to Brazil. It has toughened up recently: since the start of November, Russia has been stripped of 11 medals it won when hosting the winter games in Sochi in 2014, a pet project of Vladimir Putin’s. Russian officials have reacted with indignant (some might say Olympian) anger, calling the ban part of a Western campaign to keep Russia down.