This archive report was first published on 9 December 2019.
On December 9, 2019, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) handed Russia a four-year ban from all major sporting events, a punishment that will see the country miss the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
The ban was imposed after WADA's executive committee concluded that Moscow had tampered with laboratory data by planting fake evidence and deleting files linked to positive doping tests.
The decision was made during a special meeting of the WADA board, convened near the International Olympic Committee's headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The punishment is the most severe yet connected to the doping scheme, which peaked at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
Russia could still contest the decision and has 21 days to lodge an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
