The recent obituary of Nina Ponomareva, a discus thrower who in 1952 became the first Soviet athlete to win an Olympic gold medal, recounts how she later made a foolish mistake. On a trip to London, she was caught shoplifting some hats. To the authorities in Moscow, however, the mistake was not hers. It was all a British “dirty provocation.”
That became the standard prism through which the Soviets viewed any punitive action against them: politically motivated, always a provocation, never justified. And even though the Cold War is long over, President Vladimir Putin remains stuck in the same, snarling defensive crouch in his responses to any accusations of Russian foul play, from the seizure of Crimea to the widespread state-sponsored doping of Russian athletes.