This archive report was first published on 6 December 2019.
December 6, 2019
Russia's doping woes have snowballed since a 2015 report found evidence of mass doping in Russian athletics.
Its athletes have been sidelined from the past two Olympics, and the country was stripped of its flag at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games as punishment for state-sponsored doping cover-ups at the 2014 Sochi Games.
WADA has accused Moscow of tampering with laboratory data by planting fake evidence and deleting files linked to positive doping tests.
Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov attributed the discrepancies to technical issues, but critics say the country has an unhealthy culture that resists change.
Yuri Ganus, head of Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA, has been critical of the country's sports authorities, saying they have used destructive methods to handle the crisis.
RUSADA is set to be stripped of its accreditation for the second time in four years as part of the doping sanctions.
WADA's executive committee is set to rule on whether to ban Russia from hosting major sporting events and to force its clean athletes to compete without their flag or anthem for four years.
