http://dx.doi.org/10.18778/1427-9657.08.07 EASTERN REVIEW 2019, T. 8 Anna Kobierecka https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2492-6452 University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland Faculty of International Relations and Political Science e-mail:
[email protected] Michał Marcin Kobierecki https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8180-5710 University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland Faculty of International Relations and Political Science e-mail:
[email protected] The negative implications of Russia’s doping scandal on the country’s international image* Abstract. In December 2014, Russia was accused of developing a state-organized doping system in the second decade of the twenty-first century. The scandal resulted in many Russian athletes being banned from competing in the Olympics in Rio in 2016 and the IOC’s suspension of the Russian National Olympic Committee prior to the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. The research presented in this article aims to answer the research question of whether the doping scandal actually affected the international image of Russia. The research was conducted with the use of frame analysis of public discourse. The hypothesis to be tested states that the Russian doping scandal contributed to the intensification of a negative external image of this state. Keywords: Russia, doping, sports diplomacy, nation branding, image of a country. * This work was supported by National Science Centre, Poland grant number 2015/19/D/ HS5/00513, grant holder: Michał Marcin Kobierecki). © by the author, licensee Łódź University – Łódź University Press, Łódź, Poland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 162 Anna Kobierecka, Michał Marcin Kobierecki Introduction Sports are believed to play various political roles, both in states’ internal policies and in international relations.