The World Athletics Council is putting on hold the readmission process of the Russian Athletics Federation (RUSAF) a day after several top RUSAF officials were suspended.
Rune Andersen, chairman of the World Athletics Council task force overseeing RUSAF’s reinstatement, made the announcement following a meeting in Monaco on November 22.
The decision comes a day after RUSAF President Dmitry Shlyakhtin and several other officials were suspended by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) for serious breaches of anti-doping rules, adding to the federation's woes ahead of next year's Olympics.
The AIU, which oversees integrity issues in global athletics including doping, said the provisional suspensions were linked to an investigation into whereabouts violations committed by Russian high jumper Danil Lysenko, which they said the officials had obstructed.
It said the suspensions of seven people, including Shlyakhtin, executive director Aleksandr Parkin, Lysenko, and his coach Yevgeny Zagorulko, came after it concluded federation officials "had been involved in the provision of false explanations and forged documents to the AIU in order to explain whereabouts failures by the athlete."
The suspensions come as the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is set to decide next month on the status of Russia's anti-doping agency after Moscow allegedly provided it with doctored laboratory data.
