But no, they are still at it. At least, some of them are.

Among the latest miscreants is their 2004 Olympic and former world heavyweight boxing champion Alexander Povetkin. But more of not-so-smart Alex anon.

According to a 144-page report by the Canadian law professor Richard McClaren on behalf of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) the London 2012 Olympics were "corrupted on an unprecedented scale" by Russia’s Government and sports authorities, who colluded to ensure its sports stars were able to take a cocktail of banned performance-enhancing drugs yet evade doping tests.

The report also found that more than 1,000 Russian athletes across more than 30 sports - including football - were involved in or benefited from state-sponsored doping between 2011 and 2015.

By the end of 2013, a year before the Winter Olympics in Sochi, 225 Russian athletes had tested positive and this year the state organisation of the falsification of samples was brutally and brilliantly exposed in the media. 

McLaren called it "a cover-up that operated on an unprecedented scale" - and pointed the finger at the Russian Ministry of Sport, the Russian security services and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency for creating what he called "an institutional conspiracy across summer, winter and Paralympic sports".

On Saturday (December 17) Povetkin knocked out last-minute replacement opponent Johann Duhaupas - just hours after it emerged he had failed a drugs test. Again.

Povetkin, 37, had been due to fight Bermane Stiverne for the World Boxing Council (WBC) interim world title.

But the Russian tested positive for the banned muscle-building substance ostarine and his Haitian-Canadian opponent pulled out on the morning of the fight.

Frenchman Duhaupas had been on stand-by to fight Povetkin at the Ekaterinburg Expo Center in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Maybe Povetkin’s people suspected something like this might happen.

Duhaupas was duly knocked out in the sixth round when Povetkin flattened him with a powerful left-hook which left him motionless on the canvas

Incredibly, it was Povetkin's second failed doping test this year. And naturally he had "no idea" how the drugs got into his system.

He lost another title shot in May when he tested positive for meldonium - curiously the drugs goodie of choice for another Russian superstar Maria Sharapova - before a bout with WBC world champion Deontay Wilder, which also had to be abandoned.

On that occasion, the WBC accepted Povetkin's explanation that he had stopped taking the substance before it was banned for 2016.

You would have thought once bitten, twice shy and all that.

But no. And neither did the Russian boxing authorities who allowed him to fight on against a hopelessly inadequate opponent.

By the same token the International Olympic Committee (IOC), now under the timid stewardship of Thomas Bach, had decided not to ban Russia from the Rio Games even though the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) had already suspended Russia from all competitions. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC), by contrast bravely led by Britain’s Sir Philip Craven, subsequently barred them from participating in the Paralympics.

Bach now speaks of his shock and horror at what McLaren has unearthed, but this is somewhat conveniently tardy, don’t you think?

Surely there was more than enough evidence for the IOC to exclude Russia from Rio but instead Bach chose to be best buddies with Vladimir Putin.

As I have opined here before, the deeply disappointing Bach has no bite, just as FIFA have no balls when dealing with the Russians.

What should happen now is that Putin should be told very firmly that the 2018 World Cup will be moved elsewhere - perhaps to Germany or even the UK or US - despite the logistical nightmare this would entail.

Only such a stringent measure would really bring the wake-up call Russian sport needs.

It is a nation not unknown to the word revolution. Now another is needed from within their sport itself. Those practitioners who play by the rules in sport must ram home the message that what their rogue regime has been up to in defiling sport is intolerable.

The International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation already have decided to switch next year’s World Championships away from tainted Sochi.

Good on them. But they are relatively small fry in the grand scheme of things.

Normally the word boycott should have no place in the sporting lexicon. But so grave is Russia’s misdemeanour that an exception should be made. Clean sport owes much to the courageous whistle-blowers within Russia itself.

Now it is time to blow the whistle on the World Cup.