Despite considerable backstairs pressure the International Olympic Committee has decided - as was widely expected - to reinstate the Russian Olympic Committee after the end of the PyeongChang Winter Games despite two Russian athletes failing doping tests.
The International Olympic Committee seems to have accepted that these two doping violations were
individual cases and were not evidence of any larger doping conspiracy in Russia.
I should say that on balance I think this is correct. Two extremely shrewd observers of the international scene -
Rick Sterling and
The Saker - have both expressed the opinion that the doping violations might have happened because the athletes' food or drink was spiked by those who want to prevent Russia's reinstatement in the Olympic movement.
That is far from being a farfetched theory, but it is necessary to say that there is no actual evidence that it happened, and people do from time to time do bad and stupid things.
As to where the opposition to Russia's reinstatement has come from that has been made all too clear by the comments of Adam Pengilly, the British Olympic Committee's representative on the International Olympic Committee, who has recently been forced to resign after being sent home from PyeongChang following an altercation with a security guard.
Comment: Marine Le Pen has long been known for her blunt assessment of political reality and though it took them a little time, they've now found an excuse to intimidate her. Whether it will be successful will depend on whether French citizens will allow let them to get away with it: