Our guests: 

Erik Kirschbaum, who writes for the Los Angeles Times. Erik is a sports, and especially soccer aficionado, and he says: “Banning the Russian team from the Winter Olympics is a bold but brilliant move.”  

 

 

Vladimir Esipov from Deutsche Welle’s Russian department. He believes: “It doesn’t matter what you think of the Russian government: The 2018 World Cup is going to be a huge celebration of soccer for everyone. And that has to be good.”

 

 

Daria Sukharchuk, a freelance journalist working for Russian and English language publications. Daria argues that, "The doping scandal is painful to witness, but not really surprising to anyone familiar with the logic of Russian officials.”