The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has imposed a four-year ban on Russia, barring its entry to all major global sporting events, including the 2020 Olympics and the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.
WADA's executive committee made the decision after concluding the country had manipulated laboratory data, by planting fake evidence and deleting files linked to positive doping tests that could have helped identify drug cheats, Al Jazeera reported.
The ban means that the Russian flag and anthem will not be allowed at all global sport.
However, athletes who can prove they are untainted by the doping scandal will be able to compete under a neutral flag, according to BBC.
Russia banned from international sports - including 2020 Olympics - for four years by World Anti-Doping Agency https://t.co/DRK4ZgrefD
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) December 9, 2019
The WADA committee's decision to punish Russia with a ban was unanimous, a WADA spokesman said.
Russia, which has tried to showcase itself as a global sports power, has been embroiled in doping scandals since a 2015 report commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) found evidence of mass doping in Russian athletics.
Russia has 21 days to appeal against the ban. If it does so, the appeal will be referred to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Previously, several Russian athletes were sidelined from the past two Olympics and the country stripped of its flag altogether at last year's Pyeongchang Winter Games as punishment for state-sponsored doping cover-ups at the 2014 Sochi Games.
Monday's sanctions had been recommended by WADA's compliance review committee in response to the doctored laboratory data provided by Moscow earlier this year.
Some Russian officials, meanwhile, have branded the call for sanctions unfair and likened it to broader Western attempts to hold back the country.
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