Russia could face tough sanctions over its part in the worst corruption scandal in athletics history when a damning report is published on Monday into an alleged cover-up of failed drugs tests.
Telegraph Sport has learnt that an independent commission set up by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) will propose action is taken against institutions complicit in the blackmail of dope cheats when it presents its findings in Geneva.
That may include recommending the likes of the All-Russia Athletics Federation (ARAF) or Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) be declared non-compliant with the Wada code.
Were Wada to impose what is its ultimate sanction, it could lead to Russian athletes being banned from competing on the international stage until the institutions in question were deemed compliant again.
That would include the Olympic Games and major athletics meetings in the build-up to Rio 2016.
The Wada report will be published days after athletics was plunged into its biggest ever corruption crisis following the arrest of Lord Coe’s predecessor as president of the International Association of Athletics Federations.
Lamine Diack is suspected of taking more than £720,000 worth of bribes from ARAF, the ex-president of which was confirmed on Friday as having been charged with breaching the IAAF’s code of ethics.
The criminal proceedings against Diack and others – including his son Papa Massata – were launched following information provided by Wada’s independent commission.
The publication of its own report on Monday follows a 11-month investigation into allegations made by whistle blowers in December last year.
Richard McLaren, one of the co-authors of the report who is also a long-standing member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport, said on Friday: “This report is going to be a real game-changer for sport.
“Unlike Fifa, where you have a bunch of old men who put a whole lot of extra money in their pockets, here you potentially have a bunch of old men who put a whole lot of extra money in their pockets – through extortion and bribes – but also caused significant changes to actual results and final standing of athletics competitions.
“This is a whole different scale of corruption than the Fifa scandal or the IOC scandal in respect to Salt Lake City.”
