It’s possible the US is behind it all,” claimed the head of the Russian Duma Sports Committee as the World Anti-Doping Agency found Kremlin state agencies guilty of concealing hundreds of Russian doping tests during the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014.

Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, called the investigation “political”. This is “part of the policy of sanctions against Russia”, said the Soviet Sport newspaper. “It’s some sort of sporting Nazism,” argued boxer-turned-politician Nikolai Valuev, saying other teams could be trying to get rid of Russian competition. Vitaly Mutko, the sports minister, called doping “not just a Russian but a global problem”.

As the Kremlin reacts to what the International Olympic Committee has called “a shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sport and on the Olympic Games”, it falls back on tropes and techniques that are essential to Mr Putin’s hold on power.