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I recently discussed the Olympic games with people, and I heard an argument in favor of Russia: "Yes, the whole world uses doping, they say, scandals with our sportsmens -- this is a purely a political game of the West to humiliate Russia."

Is the banning of Russia from the Olympic games a political game by the West, intended to humiliate Russia?

tim
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Tehada
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    What is your question. Is your question "Is the banning of Russia from the Olympic games a political game by the West, intended to humilate Russia?" – James K Feb 09 '18 at 18:36
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    Is Russia providing any evidence the whole world dopes? The International Olympic Committee claimed Russia doped, and provided concrete evidence of the doping. Russian can claim that the whole world dopes, but if they have no evidence then they can claim that all foreign athletes are purple and two feet tall. Both claims have equal authority without evidence. – Giter Feb 09 '18 at 18:37
  • @JamesK yes, I want to ask sth like it! – Tehada Feb 09 '18 at 18:45
  • @Giter well, I know about presumption of innocence but it seems that Russia will never prove doping of other sportsmens. We just have in Russia a powerful propaganda and I want to understand how important this conflict in politics? – Tehada Feb 09 '18 at 18:51
  • @Tehada: I guess it's a site policy to not ask questions that can't be reasonably verified. However, if you hear about sources or evidence for the claims, feel free to ask again with that info! – Giter Feb 09 '18 at 20:55
  • @Giter tried to find raw evidence of doping but couldnt do it! I just found some interviews, in which people just claim facts. Also tried to find report of Dick Pound which was the main evidence of WADA and again -- couldnt do it. Any links please. – Tehada Feb 09 '18 at 22:17
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    @Tehada: plenty of info here, and almost everything has a source/evidence link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doping_in_Russia – Giter Feb 10 '18 at 01:28

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Unfortunately, unless evidence is found, such as proof that many other nations allow their athletes to dope or that several Western nation collaborated to humiliate Russia, this claim likely does not have a 100% provable answer. This is because it is much more difficult to prove a negative claim, such as "Other nations don't dope their athletes", than it is to prove a positive claim, such as "Russia does dope their athletes".

However, the lack of evidence that other nations dope their athletes, at least to the scale of this Russia scandal, is the best proof against the claim that this is just an effort to humiliate Russia.

The information of a single employee, Vitaly Stepanov, at Russia's anti-doping agency is what led to the investigation and evidence against Russia. So, one person in one country was all that was needed for the world to know. If Western nations did the same things that were happening in Russia, then at least one of the thousands of employees in dozens of countries' anti-doping agencies would have also come forth with evidence at some point. This evidence would be incredibly valuable to Russia and completely vindicate their actions, so the fact that they don't have such evidence means that other nations aren't doping their athletes. Therefore, it is not that the West is conspiring to humiliate Russia, rather there was evidence that Russia was cheating, so Russia was punished for cheating.

So, if someone is claiming, without evidence, that the rest of the world dopes and only Russia is punished, then the person making the claim is probably just trying to take attention away from Russia's actions through lying/propaganda, and you can ignore that person. In other words, a claim without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.

Giter
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