World Athletics fines Russia USD 10 million for doping scandals and caps neutral athletes at 10

The World Athletics Council on Thursday fined the Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) USD 10 million for breaching the sport's anti-doping rules.

World Athletics has capped at 10, the number of Authorised Neutral Athletes (ANA) allowed to compete in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and other specified World Athletics and European Athletics senior events.

There is no restriction on the number of authorised neutral athletes that can compete in international one-day events around the world, once they have been granted ANA status by the World Athletics Doping Review Board. However, the ANA process will be suspended if USD five million of the USD 10m fine is not paid by 1 July 2020.

"The remaining USD 5 million of the fine will be suspended for two years, to be paid immediately if during that period RusAF commits a further breach of the Anti-Doping Rules or fails to make meaningful progress towards satisfying the reinstatement conditions set by Council," World Athletics said in a statement.

"The ANA application process remains broadly the same, with strengthened criteria to be issued by the Doping Review Board on behalf of Council within the next week," it added.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe said that sanctions approved by the council reflect the seriousness of wrongdoing in the Russian Athletics Federation.

"The package of sanctions approved by the Council today reflects the seriousness of RusAF's wrongdoing and sends a clear message that we take these types of offenses by our Member Federations extremely seriously," Coe said.

"We have consistently tried to separate the clean athletes from a tainted system, which is why we have reinstated the ANA process for athletes from Russia, enabling them to once again compete in International one-day competitions and earn prize money, but we have restricted the number of athletes eligible to compete in senior International and European events, including at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games," he added.