FT社评：禁止俄罗斯参加平昌冬奥会乃必要之举

Perhaps Vladimir Putin had always planned to confirm on Wednesday — as if anyone ever doubted it — that he would run for a fourth presidential term next year. Maybe he did so to “bury” the shattering news of Russia’s ban from the Winter Olympics in South Korea next year. Either way, the banishment from February’s Pyeongchang Games is, in international terms, a stinging humiliation. Russia is not only the first nation ever to be excluded from an Olympics for doping, but faces this punishment in the same year it is hosting the football World Cup.

或许弗拉基米尔•普京(Vladimir Putin)原本就一直打算在本周三确认(好像有谁怀疑过这一点似的)明年他将参选，争取第四个总统任期。或许他这样做是为了让俄罗斯被禁止参加明年在韩国举行的冬奥会的惨痛消息“淡下去”。不管怎样，从国际上看，被明年2月的平昌冬奥会(Pyeongchang Games)驱逐是一种令人难堪的羞辱。俄罗斯是第一个因服用兴奋剂问题被奥运会禁赛的国家，不仅如此，明年还正好是它举办足球世界杯(World Cup)的年份。

The ban is belated but entirely justified. Even while Russia was hosting the most expensive winter games ever in Sochi in 2014, it was engaged behind the scenes in one of the most elaborate doping cover-ups in sporting history. Russian athletes’ urine samples were systematically switched for clean ones to hide drug-taking that continued throughout the games. The Federal Security Service assisted by working out how to open undetected, supposedly tamper-proof sample bottles.

虽然这一禁令姗姗来迟，但完全有据可依。甚至就在俄罗斯2014年在索契举办有史以来最昂贵的一届冬奥会时，莫斯科方面还在秘密地实施体育史上最费尽心机的计划来掩盖运动员服用兴奋剂的行为。俄罗斯运动员的尿样被系统地调换成了干净样本，以掩盖他们在比赛期间继续服用药物的行为。样本瓶理论上是一经打开就无法还原的，俄联邦安全局(Federal Security Service)帮助研究出了不留痕迹地打开样本瓶的办法。

The International Olympic Committee should have acted last year and barred Russia from the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, when the World Anti-Doping Agency revealed explosive findings on Moscow’s state-sponsored doping weeks before the games.

世界反兴奋剂机构(WADA)在去年里约夏季奥运会举行前几周公布了针对俄罗斯存在得到国家支持的服用兴奋剂行为的爆炸性调查结果，在那个时候国际奥委会(IOC)原本就应该采取行动，禁止俄罗斯参加里约夏季奥运会。

Instead, Thomas Bach, IOC president, left the decision to individual sporting federations — resulting in 271 of Russia’s original 386-strong team taking part. That looked weak, allowed Moscow to claim a political victory, and sullied the concept of clean sport.

然而，当时国际奥委会主席托马斯•巴赫(Thomas Bach)将决定权交给了各个国际单项体育联合会——结果是，俄罗斯代表队原有的386人中，有271人参加了奥运会。这种弱势表现使莫斯科获得了政治上的胜利，也玷污了神圣的体育运动。

Post-Rio, the Olympic movement expected Russia would, over time, admit to the doping and commit to changing its system. The country, or at least its senior leadership, has refused to do so. The whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov, who ran Moscow’s anti-doping laboratory in 2014, has been denounced as a fraudster and traitor.

里约奥运会后，国际奥委会曾寄希望俄罗斯随着时间的推移会承认使用兴奋剂，并承诺改革本国的体育系统。但俄罗斯(或者至少该国的高层领导)拒绝这样做。举报人、2014年负责俄反兴奋剂实验室的格里戈里•罗琴科夫(Grigory Rodchenkov)被谴责为骗子和叛徒。

Now, a further IOC-initiated probe has corroborated most of Wada’s findings last year and backed Mr Rodchenkov as a “truthful witness”. The Olympic governing body had little option but to bar the Russian flag and anthem from Pyeongchang.

如今，国际奥委会发起的一项进一步调查证实了世界反兴奋剂机构去年公布的大部分调查结果，并证实罗德琴科夫是一名“诚实的证人”。作为奥运会管理机构的国际奥委会别无选择，只能禁止俄罗斯国旗和国歌出现在平昌冬奥会。

Anti-doping campaigners argue the IOC should have stopped any Russian athletes competing. Its decision to allow Russians who can prove they are clean to take part as “neutrals” under the Olympic flag is a defensible compromise aimed at avoiding penalising innocent individuals. Mr Putin is right to have refrained from announcing a mooted complete Russian boycott of the event, so letting them compete.

反兴奋剂活动人士认为，国际奥委会本应禁止任何俄罗斯运动员参加平昌冬奥会。国际奥委会的决定——允许能够自证清白的俄罗斯运动员以“中立者”身份举奥林匹克旗参赛——是一种合理的妥协，旨在避免无辜的运动员受到惩罚。有人建议俄罗斯应全面抵制平昌冬奥会，但普京没有这样做，这是正确的。因此，这些运动员可以参赛。

Yet, however well-founded, the Olympic ban may only strengthen the Russian president. He can use it in his campaign for the election in March to bolster his message that Russia is surrounded by enemies. Russia’s powerful and poisonous state media will echo the claims. Many ordinary Russians will believe that the block on their sports stars is the result of a dastardly conspiracy, not of egregious wrong-doing by their own officials.

然而，无论证据多么确凿，禁止俄罗斯参加平昌冬奥会或许只会巩固普京总统的权力。他可以在自己的竞选活动(俄罗斯大选将于明年3月举行)中利用这一事件证明他的如下观点：俄罗斯已被敌人包围。俄罗斯强大且善于洗脑的官方媒体将附和这些说法。许多俄罗斯普通民众会认为，禁止本国体育明星参赛是一场卑鄙阴谋的结果，而非本国官员恶劣的错误行径所致。

For the western community, which has no desire either to buttress Mr Putin or to alienate the Russian people, that poses a dilemma. Yet for as long as the Russian leadership flouts established standards of behaviour — from doping its athletes to waging covert war in eastern Ukraine — the west has no choice but to take punitive measures.

对于既不想助普京一臂之力、也不想疏远俄罗斯民众的西方社会来说，这造成了一种两难。然而，只要俄罗斯领导层无视公认的行为标准——从让运动员服用兴奋剂到在乌克兰东部发动秘密战争——西方除了采取惩罚性措施别无选择。

For the IOC, it remains unclear whether, after the winter games, Russia will make the concessions needed to return to the Olympic fold. The same issue may yet dog the higher profile summer games in Tokyo in 2020. After all, it seems ever more certain that Mr Putin will still be around by then.

国际奥委会仍不知道，平昌冬奥会结束后，俄罗斯是否会做出回归奥运会所需的让步。同样的问题可能还会困扰更受世人瞩目的2020年东京夏季奥运会。毕竟，看似越来越确定的是，普京到那时仍将在台上。