LONDON • After the unmasking of its state-orchestrated doping programme turned it into a sporting pariah, Russia hardly quietly accepted its punishment.

Angered and humiliated, it has fought, so far unsuccessfully, to re-enter the international sports community through legal channels.

But US prosecutors and British government officials say, it went much further than that, actively seeking to undermine the Olympics it was barred from.

Just as it used the full might of the state in a cheating scheme that brought it now-disputed medals at events like the 2014 Sochi Winter Games, Russia unleashed some of the same forces to hack and disrupt the opening ceremony of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games and the now-delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics, according to US and British officials.

Now, once again, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is left to decide what, if any, action to take against one of the largest and most influential countries in its movement, one that has time and again challenged its ideals.

According to US and British authorities, operatives from Russia's military intelligence wing unleashed a barrage of cyber attacks on the 2018 Winter Olympics and started operations against the Tokyo Games as part of a broader worldwide hacking campaign that also included attacks on a French presidential election and Ukraine's electricity grid.

Russia denied the allegations, as it did when details of its doping programme first emerged and after attacks on other sporting bodies, including the global doping regulator.

A Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, on Tuesday described the accusations as "Russophobia".

"Russia has never carried out any hacking activities against the Olympics," he said.

The accusations come as Russia tries to overturn the four-year ban from major international sporting events it received in December, when experts at the world's anti-doping regulator found that Russian officials manipulated key data that would have allowed sports federations to finally identify the hundreds of athletes it helped to cheat.

For the IOC and its president, Thomas Bach, the latest details of Russian malfeasance are likely to be a bitter blow.

For years, the Olympic movement has stopped well short of punishing Russia with the most severe penalties, which would include barring any Russian athletes from appearing at the Olympics or participating in regional events.

Travis Tygart, who heads the US Anti-Doping Agency, another group that Russia tried to hack, said he was not surprised in the slightest by the latest developments.

He said "their behaviour has not changed one bit", and the absence of meaningful punishment, in his view, has only emboldened Russia.

"The powers that be don't have the courage to stand up to Russia even when they damage and maybe permanently damage the Olympic brand and the Olympic values," he said. "If a toddler keeps getting what it asks for and keeps disobeying the rules, why would they act differently?"

NYTIMES