Four days ahead of a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) meeting on Russia, Thomas Bach, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) president, refused to "speculate" on the outcome but asked for a "clear" answer for events that might be affected.
If the WADA Executive Committee, meeting in Lausanne on December 9, approves the long list of measures recommended by its Compliance Review Committee (CRC), Russia would simply be banned from international sport, including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.
"I'm not in a position to speculate," said Bach on Thursday after a three-day meeting of the IOC's own Executive Board.
"I don't know the details of the decision WADA could take."
The CRC recommendation followed what WADA investigators described as "an extremely serious" case of non-compliance "with several aggravating features."
WADA said in its statement on November 25 the data handed over was rife with problems, describing it as "neither complete nor fully authentic."