Russia thinks its doping scandal is the latest Western plot

MUNICH, Germany — The World Anti-Doping Agency's recommendation to ban Russia from international athletics over systematic drug use has sparked what observers say is the country’s largest-ever sports scandal.

But it’s not just about sports.

Tensions between Russia and the West are still at a critical high. Any allegations from Moscow’s geopolitical adversaries that it’s misbehaving — whether over doping in athletics or airstrikes in Syria — really get Russians going.

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“The West is using the sporting world, which attracts millions of eyes, for a demonstrative shaming and a settling of scores,” wrote one columnist in Vzglyad, a prominent nationalist journal, comparing the investigation to sanctions.

The independent report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), an affiliate of the International Olympic Committee, depicts deep, officially sanctioned cheating and deceit in Russian athletics. Released Monday, the report alleges that Russian officials supported athletes' widespread use of prohibited performance-enhancement drugs, routinely took bribes, and intentionally destroyed over 1,400 test samples.

Russia's official responses so far have been about as defiant as you'd imagine. 

The sports minister initially threatened to cut funding to the anti-doping agency. Then his office issued a statement saying it was “not surprised by most of the points” in the report.

But the Kremlin outright rejected the findings. "Until some evidence is presented … it is difficult to accept these accusations, they are quite groundless," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

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Many public figures are also denouncing the report, claiming to see the wicked hand of the West behind the scandal.

Vadim Zelichenok, the acting president of RusAthletics, the Russian athletics federation, denied his organization was tainted by corruption and said the scandal was a “political hit job.”

Others, such as former Olympic speed-skater Svetlana Zhurova, who's now deputy head of the parliamentary committee for international affairs, suggested the investigation was a plot against her compatriots.

“This situation is psychologically unpleasantfor all Russian athletes, as some may find it convenient and use it as a way to put psychological pressure on Russian athletes ahead of the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro,” she said, according to Russian state television.

Popular opinion in Russia has shifted considerably against the West in recent years. It is nudged along by a steady stream of nationalist rhetoric in the state-friendly media.

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Economic sanctions against Moscow — enacted by the United States, Europe and other allies after Russia annexed Crimea and supported an insurgency in eastern Ukraine — have only reinforced a feeling of collective punishment.

But while some Russians got angry, others appeared more given to dishing out, let’s say, than flipping out.

Dmitry Guberniev, a commentator for Russian sports channel Match TV, ridiculed the report's lead author Dick Pound for his commission’s suggestion that there was a doping cover-up even during last year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, but that there was no proof yet.

“I’ve seen Mr. Pound at many Olympics,” Guberniev said. “It always seemed to me that he was a woman, but we don’t have the evidence yet.”