Mishin bribing? LOL!

The story of Samodurova is very simple imo. She had one hell of a season back in 2019.
First, she managed to squeeze in at the GPs (she only had 29th seasons best and wasn't guaranteed any place). And due to various injuries in the Russian team she got two places.
She did well, she had tiny jumps, but she was consistent. And consistency can make you go far - she qualified for the GPF, beating many favourites (finished 5th with her consistency).
Then RusNats came, and the 14 year old 3A's swept the podium. The main contenders Zagitova and Medvedeva had terrible skates and Sofia with her consistency managed to finished 6th, thus making her the 3rd senior, and so she managed to squeeze in for the world team.
At Europeans, everyone had terrible skates, but Sofia, with her consistency held on - winning the gold! I think though the judges might have gone a bit overboard with her score there, but they were probably just happy to see someone skate clean!
Then at Worlds, she was consistent as usual, but didn't stand a chance cause there were better skaters there (finished 8th).
Last season, nothing changed, Sofia was still consistent, but with a lot of URs suddenly. At the same time all the others shaped up and outskated her. She couldn't squeeze in anymore.
That's the story of Sofia Samodurova. (imo)