New Cold War is now in full swing and the West is using both old and new tactics, in order to demonize and discredit all of its opponents: from Russia to China, Venezuela, North Korea, South Africa and Iran.

Our anti-imperialist media outlets, including those of the RT, TeleSUR, Press TV, CCTV and Sputnik are being labeled as ‘propaganda’ channels. Defensive and internationalist initiatives of our countries are branded as aggressions. Those governments that are relentlessly working on behalf of the people are defined as ‘evil’ or at least as ‘dictatorships’.

The Empire is erecting a complex and destructive web of lies and manipulations, literally trapping some countries in grotesque pseudo-legal concepts, as recently happened to China, which was confronted by The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) at The Hague, which has recently ruled against, what F. William Engdhal described, as “any and all claims of China to various islands or even rocks inside what is known as the ‘Nine Dash Line’ between China’s coast and The Philippines.” China actually never asked for any ‘arbitration’; it is repeating that it has been ready to negotiate directly with the Philippines. But the West and the previous servile administration in Manila decided to turn this historical dispute into yet another ideological and propaganda battle.

The War against the “coalition of unwilling” is constantly diversifying. Propagandists in North America and Europe are inventing new ‘weapons’ of mass intellectual and information destruction. Nothing is left intact.

The latest ‘battle’ is truly unconventional, one could even say ‘innovative’ – it is an attempt to demonize Russian athletes, and even to prevent them, at lease some of them, from participating in the upcoming Rio de Janeiro Olympic games!

Of course, Russia’s athletes are legendary, as are its artists, scientists and thinkers. To drag the entire Russian Olympic team through the dirt and infamy could be definitely considered a great victory for the Western Empire and its fundamentalist philosophy. To ban it altogether from participating at the Olympics would be even more ‘delightful’.

“Just look at those sneaky, filthy, dishonest Russians – they are cheating wherever they go! They are doping their athletes, turning them into some robots stuffed with steroids… They are winning unfairly!”

Deena Stryker makes an excellent point in her recent essay for the NEO:

Today the airways were full of talk about the possibility that Russia would be banned from taking part in the up-coming Olympic Games in Brazil, on the pretext that the IOC has ‘definitive proof’ — in the words of a spokesman — that the Putin government was complicit in the doping of its athletes going back to 2013. Two things strike me as strange: the first is the fact that the Russian doctor and former lab head who apparently faked test results now lives in California, were he heads a laboratory. The second thing is that sports fans are less likely than other people to be up on foreign news and international politics, while they are passionate about sports news… These people are bound to make up a sizable portion of any electorate, so someone in President Obama’s foreign policy team probably decided to target them instead of consumers of hard news. Sports fans have probably not followed the Ukraine coup, or even the NATO buildup on Russia’s borders…

The IOC itself is historically a notoriously corrupt institution. It has been always more than willing to provide favors to those who either pay, or hold reigns of power.

It is not that the Russian labs and all Russian athletes are clean, far from it! There were definitely several (or many) cases of doping, and the labs were not always ‘clean’ or transparent. But!

But so many athletes and so many labs, all over the world, are guilty of the same wrongdoings. But it is only Russia that may be forced to pay the heaviest, the ultimate price.

To claim that this is not part of the political battle would be ludicrous.

But sidelining, even demonizing Russia may not be the only purpose for this complex ‘operation’.

Just very recently, Brazil, the host country of the 2016 Olympic games, went through some agonizing events. Its socialist government had been framed and forced out of power, by both the local extreme right wing elites and by their handlers in the West.

Protests are still raging. Discontent with the coup and with the new regime is growing.

There is great chance that there will be clashes between the protesters and armed forces, during the Games.

In such an explosive environment, anything could become symbolic, even the epic fight of the Russian, Chinese, Cuban and other athletes against the competitors representing the West.

During my recent visit to Brazil I realized how popular Russia is becoming among the ordinary people there. It is clear for whom so many Brazilian sports fans would be cheering, especially now, after the shameless coup.

This (the planners in Washington most likely decided) has to be prevented. The solidarity of BRICS countries should not be shown on television screens to those billions of sports fans all over the world.

Now, with Temer and his clique holding power in Brazil, it would be much easier to simply ‘delete’ Russia from the Olympic map, if the IOC decides to impose a blank ban on the entire Russian team.

If the coup never took place, if Dilma and the PT were still in power, there were several ways to resist this latest West’s onslaught against Russia and its athletes. There were even ways to humiliate the spineless IOC. For instance, the government of Brazil could have arranged a parallel event for the Russian athletes, in order to show its solidarity. But now, the way things are, there is no chance for such a ‘rebellion’!

Brazil is screaming under attacks from the market fundamentalists. Its new (illegitimate, but fully pro-Western) government naturally sees Russia as one of its archenemies.

One should never under-estimate the Empire! In its own, deeply destructive way, it is truly brilliant. Its Machiavellian tactics are extremely effective. And this sport saga is just a proof of it!

On July 26, 2016, the RT reported:

The International Olympic Committee has rejected calls for a blanket ban on Russia at the Rio 2016 Games, ruling that individual sports federations should decide whether Russian athletes are eligible to compete. Athletes will need to meet strict criteria laid out by the IOC, including proving to international federations that they have a clean doping record and have been tested by “reliable” international anti-doping bodies.

Conditions are almost impossible to meet, in such a short time that is left before the beginning of the Olympic games in Rio.

The Empire is becoming thoroughly unpredictable. It is attacking on all fronts. It lost all its shame and decency.

And the Western mass media is now fully lined-up, providing ideological cover and unabashed propaganda. And now it is not only the media in the United States, but also in Germany, the U.K. and elsewhere.

Most likely, the free world (those countries that are refusing to accept the West’s dictates) will soon lose one more important battle. But the struggle goes on! Those Russian athletes who will make it to Rio will be fighting great symbolic battles, like those that were fought in Berlin, during the 1936 Olympics.

• First published at Telesur