Putin Poking on Thin Ice

We have today the interesting story of FIFA leaders being indicted by the U.S. Justice Department for (again) taking bribes that influenced their selection of sites for the World Cup.  [See among many, Paul Sonne, Vladimir Putin Says U.S. Is Overstepping With FIFA Probe, The Wall Street Journal, 29 May 2015. ]  What makes this story more interesting than some of the others that focus on the football aspect, "corruption of the game", this one focuses on one of the beneficiaries, Russia, and its defense of the poor FIFA President, Seth Blatter.  He hasn't been accused of doing anything, but is up for reelection this next week.

The Russian President blames the U.S. for everything so this is no different, saying they have no right to prosecute people who aren't U.S. citizens and committed no crimes in the U.S.  This is also a favorite tactic of Columbian and Mexican drug cartel leaders, who forget that their transactions go through U.S. banks.  On occasion, bribes do too.

Then Putin added something odd.  He said this was not much different than the treatment of Edward Snowden (deprived of a place to go by pressure from the U.S. on its allies who might take him in) and Julian Assange (persecuted for snitching on the U.S. Army).  This is a bizarre comparison with bribery for locating a sporting event.

Then Sonnes' story went on to say this, "Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko has defended the transparency of Russia’s bid. 'Russia is an open and democratic country,' Mr. Mutko told Russian journalists on Wednesday in Zurich, according to Russian state news agency TASS. 'Our bid campaign was conducted honestly. Russia isn’t involved in corruption, everything with us is honest. There are no problems.' "  That little bit reminded me of something.

Before this case first opened, I recorded some concerns that Russia had hacked the bids for these kinds of events to get a leg up on the competition.  The FBI said it was investigating allegations.  At the time, I thought they might have done it here too, but nobody in Russia has been charged with anything - bribery or hacking - yet.