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Some, notably the track and field association, have banned participation at all international meets by athletes from Russia as well as from Belarus, the Kremlin’s puppet state. That means no pole vaulters, high jumpers or sprinters from those two countries will compete in Paris.

But some other federations will allow Russians and Belarusians, albeit under strictures laid down by the IOC. As so-called independent neutral athletes, they will participate under a flag and lyric-less anthem invented for the occasion, and with no teams, signs, colors or other symbols that identify their criminal country of origin.

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That’s the rub, of course. It’s their country that has committed the crime of aggression in Ukraine, not the athletes who sweated and strove for a shot at Olympic glory. And so, goes the argument, enshrined in IOC doctrine, banning those athletes from competition would be collective punishment.

That’s true. But it’s also undeniable that to the Russian dictator, sports is simply another front in the propaganda offensive he wields in service to his imperial war in Ukraine.

That’s the point of Putin’s gambit to stage so-called Friendship Games, to be held in Moscow and Yekaterinburg in September. The idea is to show that Russia still has a few friends, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere, whose participation would blunt Russia’s image as a pariah in Paris.

Soft power being a scarce Russian commodity, cash is the lure at these anti-Olympics. Unlike the actual Olympics, where athletes compete for medals, the Friendship Games will award some $50 million in prize money, with individual champions hauling in $40,000.

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The Friendship Games, unbeholden to international prohibitions on performance-enhancing drugs, are also likely to be a showcase for state-sponsored doping, for years Moscow’s stock in trade at international sporting events. “The health of and fairness for athletes may be compromised,” the World Anti-Doping Agency said, in a gold-medal-worthy gem of understatement.

Moscow’s maneuvering is not lost on Olympics officials. Russian and Belarusian athletes who have expressed public support for the war are banned from the Paris Games. They include Abdulrashid Sadulaev, a freestyle wrestler and two-time Olympic champion who carried the Russian team’s flag at the Tokyo Games’........

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