Tours of testing facilities were organised for foreign media and athletes were put up for interview to explain just how devastating it would be to miss out on the Olympics after years of training.
The junta says that any street demonstration will have been organised by foreign agents, and anyone taking part will be dealt with severely.The NLD's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, is described in the official newspapers as a "democracy actress" and foreign lackey.
Perhaps heeding their advice, Moscow has gone on a charm offensive, with sports minister Mutko suddenly admitting "serious mistakes" had been made, and tours organised for foreign journalists of anti-doping facilities and the sports ministry, one of which the Guardian participated in this week.
They had contacted an agent [a fixer who can bribe officials and organise foreign travel] and given them a huge bribe and got me out.
The committee also helped to organise a foreign teacher recruitment drive.
"The inspirational teacher, with an idiosyncratic approach to lessons and proven ability to organise adventurous foreign trips, was in fact an accomplished and cynical criminal," he concluded.
This followed so closely after Gordon Brown offered Iran an atomic bargain in his major speech on international nuclear co-operation at a conference organised by the foreign office in the middle of last month, some might think it was co-ordinated.
Speaking at a commemorative gathering in Kiev, he said Russian presidential aide Vladislav Surkov had organised "groups of foreign snipers".
In the field of biosecurity, this has included meetings of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC), the Pugwash study group on the BWC, and meetings organised by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Wilton Park, Chatham House, National Academies of Science, Royal Society, World Health Organisation and others.
