Russia’s doping suspension has been lifted – but the nation will remain banned “for the foreseeable future” because of the war in Ukraine, the World Athletics Council has ruled.
Athletes have not been able to compete for Russia since November 2015 after state-sponsored doping was uncovered.
The Russian federation has been reinstated after meeting conditions set by World Athletics’ Russia Taskforce.
But athletes remain excluded following Russia’s invasion in February 2022.
The war in Ukraine saw Russian and Belarusian athletes banned from both the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Oregon and the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade.
The decision followed calls by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for sports federations to exclude Russian and Belarusian athletes, officials and teams from international events.
However, the IOC is exploring a pathway to allow athletes from those nations to compete as neutrals at the 2024 Olympics.
Ukraine has threatened to boycott the Paris Games if a ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes is not upheld.
World Athletics had already suspended the Russian Athletics Federation due to state-sponsored doping, although some of the country’s athletes were still allowed to compete as ‘authorised neutral athletes’ in track and field at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Russia was accused of running a “state-supported” doping programme in a World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) commission report in 2015.
That ban was upheld in 2019 after Wada declared Russia’s Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) non-compliant for manipulating laboratory data handed over to investigators.
However, the suspension was later reduced by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, until 16 December 2022.
More to follow.
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