Someone recently told me russian athletes are ordinary people with no control over their dictatorship. That the bans do nothing for Ukraine and exist only to whip up national hatred.

I have heard this argument many times. It is always delivered with the same air of moral seriousness, as though the person making it has risen above the passions of the moment and can see the principle clearly. And it is always built on a factual error so basic that the entire structure collapses once you name it.

The error is this: there is no such thing as a private russian athlete.

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