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In November 2015, the World Anti-Doping Agency released a highly anticipated report into allegations of misconduct within Russian athletics<\/a>. Finding that the Russian authorities had engaged in a widespread pattern of doping, cover-ups, and extortion, WADA recommended the banning of Russia from all international athletic endeavour. The International Association of Athletics Federations – recently rebranded as World Athletics – was also implicated in the report, but in the spirit of reform it picked up the baton, and as WADA suspended the Russian Anti-Doping Agency<\/a> for non-compliance, the IAAF suspended the All-Russia Athletic Federation from all future world track and field events<\/a>.<\/p>\n Business pretty much as usual then, as this week WADA – after once again declaring RUSADA to be non-compliant – handed Russia a four-year ban from major international sporting events<\/strong>. WADA provisionally lifted its ban on Russia towards the end of 2018<\/a>. However the IAAF continually voted to uphold its own ban on the All-Russia Athletic Federation, while WADA immediately ran into problems as it struggled for access to RUSADA’s Moscow laboratory and found that pertinent data had been manipulated. The latest ban, decided unanimously as WADA executives met in Lausanne, follows directly from this evidence of data tampering<\/a>.<\/p>\n WADA’s ban<\/a> seeks to go further than ever before in comprehensively barring Russia from international sporting events while also banning the hosting of events within Russia<\/a>. In practice however, Russian athletes with clean samples will still be able to compete at major events under a neutral flag, just like they did at the 2018 Winter Olympics<\/a>. That means that while the Russian flag will not appear at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo next year, Russian athletes will still be present in Japan, at least on a case-by-case basis. Russia’s status ahead of the 2022 World Cup is murkier still<\/a>, as while they would theoretically not be allowed to compete in the finals, the implication is that they are not currently banned from the regional qualification process. And Russia will retain its status as both joint host and participating nation at Euro 2020, which is deemed a regional rather than an international competition.<\/p>\n