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.
或許弗拉迪米爾•普丁(Vladimir Putin)原本就一直打算在本週三確認（好像有誰懷疑過這一點似的）明年他將參選，爭取第四個總統任期。或許他這樣做是爲了讓俄羅斯被禁止參加明年在南韓舉行的冬奧會的慘痛訊息「淡下去」。不管怎樣，從國際上看，被明年2月的平昌冬奧會(Pyeongchang Games)驅逐是一種令人難堪的羞辱。俄羅斯是第一個因服用興奮劑問題被奧運會禁賽的國家，不僅如此，明年還正好是它舉辦足球世界盃(World Cup)的年份。