Such a change of heart, at least officially, seems unlikely. reconsider its decision to let Russian athletes compete?

Putin, to attend the opening ceremony of the 2022 Games as a guest of his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. That allowed Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Similarly, while Russian officials are technically barred from attending the Olympics, the punishment included a provision that allows the head of state of a host nation to extend a special invitation to another head of state or government official. The global ban came on the heels of new revelations that year of Russia’s failed attempts to cover up the earlier scandal, including through the manipulation of test samples and efforts to block access to testing its data. The scheme had been active for years heading into the 2014 Olympics before one of its masterminds, Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of a Moscow doping laboratory, came forward in 2016 to disclose the details. In December 2019, the World Anti-Doping Agency barred Russia from international sports competitions after concluding that it had orchestrated and run a sprawling and state-sponsored doping scheme at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. The country is technically banned from the Games and other global sports competitions as a result of an earlier doping scandal, but individual athletes have been allowed to compete under the banner of the Russian Olympic Committee. In the meantime, the revelations are raising familiar questions about Russia’s presence and participation at these Olympics.

Ban all mtasa