Old habits are hard to break in what used to be the USSR, I reckon. Although, to be fair, the suggestion that the people involved in Russia's Olympic disaster merely resign are pretty mild compared to the way they used to do business there. I maintain that this dismal performance validates my long-held belief that the USSR should have been allowed to collapse as a political entity, while reconstituting itself purely as a sports program. Perhaps this innovative plan is worth another look now, since this thing called "Russia" seems pretty much to have become the Washington Nationals of winter sports.

Of course, clandestine operatives in the employ of Comra...er...Mr. Medvedev are clinging to their own peculiar theories of exactly which North Americans were able to foil the carefully laid plans of Russian sports executives.