WADA bans Russia from global sporting events for four years over doping

Russia was banned from the Olympics and world championships in a range of sports on Monday after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) ruled to punish it for manipulating laboratory data, the TASS news agency reported.

WADA's executive committee took the decision after it concluded that Moscow had tampered with laboratory data by planting fake evidence and deleting files linked to positive doping tests that could have helped identify drug cheats.

A spokesperson for WADA, whose executive committee is meeting in Lausanne, said: "The full list of recommendations have been unanimously accepted."

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 WADA found evidence of mass doping in Russian athletics.

Its doping woes have grown since, with many of its athletes 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.

In focus this time were findings from WADA which concluded that Moscow had tampered with laboratory data by planting fake evidence and deleting files linked to positive doping tests that could have helped identify drug cheats.

Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov last month attributed the discrepancies in the laboratory data to technical issues.

WADA's executive committee convened in Lausanne on Monday.

RUSADA, Russia's anti-doping agency RUSADA could be stripped of its accreditation for the second time in four years as part of the same doping sanctions.