The US has very harsh drug laws domestically. If a Russian athlete was caught smuggling cannabis into the US today, I'd bet dollars to donuts they would get a similarly harsh sentence by the US.

The rest of your article paints Russia as far more powerful than they are. Sure, they employ trolls just like the US does, but Russia's influence on the world and very particularly on the US would be rather small if not for people like you trying to convince everyone how powerful Russia is.