The investigation by the antidoping agency, the global sports’ drug regulator, documented email and forensic evidence of rampant doping and urine-tampering by Russian sports and government agencies at Sochi and across years of competitive sports. Urine samples were doctored and swapped among athletes; bizarre concoctions of table salt and Nescafe granules were used to foil test samples. One result was that more than 100 Russian athletes were banned from the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The agency’s report concluded that global sports competitions had been stealthily hijacked for years by the Russians. But just as he has with the hacking and polluting of political campaigns in the United States and Europe, President Putin righteously denies any Kremlin role in outlaw behavior, from voting booths to playing fields. Rather, he alleges “connections and dependencies” within international sports in which “the controlling stake” is held by television and advertising powers in the United States, all to defame Russia.

Last March, Mr. Putin conceded shortcomings in his nation’s antidoping system. But he has continued to deny that the government ran an organized doping scheme even in the face of the admission last year by Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov, Russia’s former antidoping lab director, that he helped top Russian athletes take performance-enhancing drugs on orders from the state.

The next move is up to the International Olympic Committee, which meets next month. Russia’s flat refusal to allow access to stored urine samples in Moscow has resulted in a separate ban of the Paralympic and track and field teams from global competition. Should the committee emulate that example and ban all Russian athletes from the winter games?

That is seen as unlikely since too many nations seem paralyzed by the competing demands of promoting the games and policing them. The I.O.C. is considering lighter sanctions, such as barring the Russian national anthem from being played, and blocking Russian athletes from the opening ceremony.