Time until Putin shifts blame for his country's athletes cheating: T minus 3, 2, 1... I've had a radical idea for a while, for Russia to split in two on the Urals line. It's too big to develop in any meaningful fashion within reasonable constraints of time. Having a European-Asian confederation with separate leadership (two different governments) and shared resources pool would allow the Eastern part develop much quicker, and since the European part is much richer, Russia Asia would benefit enormously. It may have little effect on the athletic performance per se, but it would foster a higher standard of living for both sides, thus allowing for our competitive sports training to run better due to increase in facilities available. It would not happen, however, for as long as Russia is being ruled by a corrupt mob boss with a penchant for all things shiny and self-image issues. Makes for a decent alternative history, though.