THE DAY after the board of the International Ski Federation (FIS) sensationally extended the boycott of Russia, Putin has intervened directly in the matter.

Now the Russian authorities have appealed the boycott decision to the international Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), while the Kremlin leadership admits how hard this ban is hitting their plans for the sport:

"We are of course disappointed that an international federation has decided something like this," Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the propaganda website Ria Novosti.

Once again, it is Norway and the Nordic countries that are blamed by the Russian authorities for FIS President Johan Eliasch's ultimate failure to get Putin's ski heroes back on track:

- Norway is dancing on corpses after the shameful FIS decision, reports the pro-regime Russian website Sport Box.

Earlier this fall, Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev spoke about how the Russian regime's attempts to get its stars into the World Cup and Olympics were constantly blocked by the Nordic countries:

- In several places we have walked right into a Scandinavian wall. We can and must blow it away, he told the TV channel Match, adding explanatoryly at a time when the Russians are bombing everything and everyone around them:

- Figuratively speaking, that is.

OTHER Russian nationalists are more brutal than the sports minister. Like the rabid former biathlon hero Aleksandr Tikhonov after he heard about how Finnish ski officials worked to keep Russia out:

"Let's turn Finland into Hiroshima," Tikhonov suggested on the Russian TV program Vse Pro Sport, adding mockingly:

- Ever since the Soviet era, I have said that we have no other friends than soldiers and sailors. But we thought Finland and the Baltic countries were friends and brothers. I have always known that was a lie. Now we see it.

TIKHONOV is used as a clown in Russian media as well, but the anger over this continued exclusion is unmistakable.

Naturally, it hits cross-country rival Norway the hardest. The Kremlin's propaganda channel Ria Novosti unleashes Olympic champion Dimitrij Vasiliev; another untamed ex-biathlon king.

Vasiliev now lets his anger go beyond Johannes Høsflot Klæbo after our strongest man supported FIS's decision:

- It's pure doping; it's the only way they can win, says Dimitrij Vasiliev about all the medals Klæbo and Norway have swept in the last championships without Russian participation, and thinks the Norwegians are shameless:

"They don't even try to hide the fraud. They surround themselves with medical exemptions and claim that they are using banned drugs just because they are sick. But it is a lie and a deception," the former Olympic champion explained to Russian readers today.

BECAUSE after Putin's surprising defeat at the FIS board meeting, there is a lot to explain to the large Russian sports audience. So confident were they that their cross-country skiers would once again be allowed to compete abroad.

Those rumors started already this summer when Sport Express reported changes to the list of Russian cross-country skiers who were independently doping tested by the FIS.

AT THE TIME, there were 23 Russian skiers on the list, before seasoned Tour de Ski winner Darja Neprajeva was added. It was considered a sure sign that the FIS was secretly preparing her for Olympic participation.

In the same way that Putin favorite Veronika Stepanova was still not among the selected, it was seen as proof that the IOC and FIS set the limit for Putin-friendliness with this highly controversial warmonger.

INSTEAD, there were zero Russian cross-country skiers at the World Cup and the Olympics, and a sad story about how Neprajeva cried over missing the prestigious winter games in Val di Fiemme. It was so surprising that the explanations for the defeats were many the next day.

Russian media are once again reminding us why FIS President Johann Eliasch has fought so hard to get Putin's ski heroes back; namely that the head of skiing is using his position to advance in the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after he lost his top job there this summer.

For now, Eliasch is only on the IOC board by virtue of being FIS president. By following the IOC's Putin-friendly line, he would achieve something more:

- We must understand all the chaos and confusion that prevailed around our athletes after the election of Donald Trump, said the leading Russian Duma representative  Dmitry Svishchev already last winter when the Russians realized that the close relationship between Trump and Putin would give them new chances in sports.

SO the Russians hope that this chaos means that the door that was closed yesterday will suddenly be opened due to geopolitical developments. That someone in the backroom is telling the CAS judges that it is illegal to keep Russian skiers out of the Winter Olympics.

Just like next summer's World Cup in the United States, Donald Trump is personally involved in the preparations for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He has become a key ally for IOC President Kirsten Coventry and the rest of the Olympic leadership. That could mean anything for Putin's Russia, but it still feels like potentially good news for the Russians.

Even an American president who aspires to the Peace Prize seems to be comfortable with Putin's close connection between sports and war.