Most of you watched it, I’m sure. I did, while here in D.C., waiting for breaking news updates from Capitol Hill. And to be honest, I’ve been a fan of Yevgeny Plushenko’s skating for a while. I like the power and the flair he brings to the sport, and his unabashed cockiness hardly surprises someone, like yours truly, who is surrounded by politicians all day long.

Well, after Plushenko narrowly lost the gold to American Evan Lysacek despite being the only one to do a quad jump, the fallout HAS gotten political. Let’s start with Vladimir Putin jumping into the fray without hesitation:

“Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin climbed into the controversy surrounding Yevgeny Plushenko’s surprise defeat in the Olympics figure skating by claiming on Friday that he should have been awarded gold.

‘I would like to sincerely congratulate you on the wonderful Olympic performance — your silver is worth gold,’ Putin said in a telegram addressed to the skater.

‘You were able to overcome all the obstacles in your brave comeback and performed the most accomplished program on the Vancouver ice.’”

Russia’s Pravda news outlet was a bit more blunt:

“It is not exactly a huge surprise to have international skating experts from the four corners of the Earth criticising the decision to award the Men’s figure skating Gold medal to the US athlete Evan Lysacekv over the reigning Olympic Champion Evgeny Plushenko, whose superior performance was inexplicably ignored.

As Plushenko explains, ‘I did a great short program but did not get the marks I deserved. When I asked why, they told me I was skating early and they had to retain top marks for the last group…Then in the free program, I was the last to skate, did everything clean and still didn’t get the marks.’

Everybody who knows anything about Olympic skating, Winter Olympic sports and international politics will infer from the pitiful and dangerous conditions provided by the Canadian authorities, which already caused one death, that Vancouver is mutton dressed as lamb. Take off the outer veneer and the stench is horrific.

It is a surprise that any Russian athlete would wish to remain in that sort of environment for a second longer.”

Also, from The Moscow Times, the Russians’ Olympic performance thus far is roiling the Duma, with lawmakers calling for blood and the firing of top sports officials.

But USA Today asks if the judging controversy stirred by Plushenko will aid the Russians in subsequent events, namely ice dancing.

(Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)