In sports and more, Moscow is bending the rules to get ahead
ON JUNE 17, A FEW DAYS AFTER Russian soccer fans began running riot at the European championships in France, Vladimir Putin was asked to comment on his countrymen’s behavior. With a half-smile, the Russian President played dumb. “I truly don’t understand how 200 of our fans could beat up several thousand English,” he told audience members at an economic forum in St. Petersburg, where they responded with laughs and applause.
