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I don't think it's got anything to do with getting a level-footing. I think the perception is that the 'West' is riddled with hypocrisy. They're quite paranoid, the Russians, and they think we're out to get them, not realising that we actually don't give them much thought. Hard people, too.
Our holier-than-thou, we don't cheat, but that's not to say we won't do anything else to gain an advantage, may well grate with them as well, who knows...
You could say that Sky's zero tolerance programme is more an exercise in marketing. What they basically mean is that they're all about due diligence and won't do anything that's illegal, but they'd inject their riders with petrol if it was allowed and gave them marginal gains.
The_Kindness_of_Trees
The thing that annoys me the most about this whole Fancy Bears hacking is that they're getting what they want, to muddy the waters around doping by trying to paint some legitimate, legal use of drugs to help with illness/asthma in the same light as systematic, state run doping programmes.
Something I read recently about the current political climate in Russia is that we need to remember we look at everything from a different perspective. From inside Russia it is seen as the West often ganging up against them, and so hacking Hilary Clinton's emails, annexing Crimea, trying to take over Ukraine etc. is all done in the context of trying to push back and get on a level footing.
The popularity of cycling means it's a good way for them to get the media to focus on these TUE leaks and distract from the bigger picture. I'm sure there is probably still some pros using drugs, micro dosing while training so it won't show up in competition, etc. but hacking the WADA TUE list isn't going to catch those people.