Russian athletes are yet again facing consequences for their country’s invasion of Ukraine, as Russia was banned Tuesday from competing in international ice-skating events.

The move comes one day after Russian athletes were disqualified from soccer and hockey competition, the latter of which is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s favorite sport.

The International Skating Union (ISU) said that no athletes from Russia or Belarus “shall be invited or allowed to participate” in events until further notice.

“The ISU Council reiterates its solidarity with all those affected by the conflict in Ukraine and our thoughts are with the entire Ukrainian people and country,” the ISU said in a statement.

Belarus has been an ally of Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.

The world figure skating championships are scheduled for later this month in France, and the decision mean Olympic champion Anna Shcherbakova and 15-year-old teammate Kamila Valieva—the center of an ongoing doping dispute at the Winter Olympics—will be excluded from the competition.

Also, the International Volleyball Federation said it has stripped Russia of hosting the men’s world championships in August and September.

“It would be impossible to prepare and stage the World Championships in Russia due to the war in Ukraine,” the board said.

The sport of swimming, on the other hand, has eschewed the recommendation to ban Russians. FINA, the sport’s governing body, said Tuesday it’ll allow Russian and Belarusian swimmers to take part “as neutrals, competing under the FINA flag and with the FINA anthem.”

FINA’s website still lists Russia as hosting December’s world short-course championships. The swimming body did, however, say it had withdrawn a federation honor awarded to Putin in 2014.

The International Ski Federation followed in FINA’s footsteps, but the Norwegian Ski Federation said Tuesday it would block Russians from competing in upcoming World Cup events in its country.

“We had hoped that FIS would reach the same conclusion on behalf of all ski nations, but now the Norwegian Ski Federation can no longer wait. The executive board has therefore today decided to notify FIS that Russian and Belarusian athletes will not be allowed to participate in the upcoming events in Norway,” Norwegian Ski Federation president Erik Roste said.

Two Russian Olympic curlers will lose the medals they won in Pyeongchang last week after one of them failed a doping test.

Russian Curlers doping scandal news

The Russian Curling Federation announced Wednesday that Alexander Krushelnitsky and his wife Anastasia Bryzgalova will return their bronze medals — which they won in the team event on Feb. 14 — after Krushelnitsky tested positive for the banned heart medication meldonium.

“Aleksandr Krushelnitckii (OAR, mixed doubles curling, ranked 3rd), positive test with meldonium; the athlete has admitted the anti-doping rule violation; he is disqualified from the mixed doubles curling event at the Olympic Winter Games Pyeongchang 2018 and the results obtained by the team OAR at the same event are disqualified with all resulting consequences,” read a statement from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which ruled the Russian curler is disqualified.

Krushelnitsky appealed his doping ban, but then dropped it shortly after a meeting between an aide to Russian president Vladimir Putin and the head of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach.

The IOC’s executive board is deciding whether to lift its suspension on the Russian Olympic Committee before the closing ceremonies on Sunday. The ban lifting would allow Russian athletes to parade in their own colors, a privilege they were denied when the Games began. Russia was discovered to have been running a state-sponsored doping program that dates back to the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.

“It would be stupid to deny it after two tests proved positive,” Bach said of Krushelnitsky before the CAS’s ruling. “The samples tested had been collected during the Olympic Games, and I am ready to face the verdict that is usually announced in such cases.”

Krushelnitsky has denied knowingly taking meldonium, a heart medicine that increases blood flow.

One Russian sports agent, Andrei Mitkov, highlighted the importance of the aforementioned meeting in a recent Facebook post in which he described previous cases of athletes from his country failing doping tests. Mitkov has represented many athletes, including Russian Olympic swimmer Yulia Efimova, who was caught doping but was still controversially allowed to participate in the Rio 2016 Games. Efimova served a 16-month ban that ended in early 2015.

Here is the full statement from the CAS:

“Aleksandr Krushelnitckii (OAR, mixed doubles curling, ranked 3rd), positive test with meldonium; the athlete has admitted the anti-doping rule violation; he is disqualified from the mixed doubles curling event at the Olympic Winter Games Pyeongchang 2018 and the results obtained by the team OAR at the same event are disqualified with all resulting consequences; the athlete is excluded from the Olympic Winter Games Pyeongchang 2018; his accreditation shall be withdrawn; the proceedings shall continue between the WCF and the athlete; the IOC is no longer a party to this procedure. The athlete has accepted a provisional suspension beyond the period of the Games and reserved his rights to seek the elimination or reduction of any period of ineligibility based on “no fault or negligence” following the conclusion of the Games. The amendment of the official ranking of the mixed doubles curling event and the reallocation of the bronze medal is of the responsibility of the WCF and the IOC.”

SOCHI, RUSSIA – FEBRUARY 23: Gold medalist Alexander Legkov of Russia celebrates in the medal ceremony for the Men’s 50 km Mass Start Free during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony at Fisht Olympic Stadium on February 23, 2014 in Sochi, Russia. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

A group of 47 Russian athletes has lost a last-minute appeal to their suspensions for doping just as the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea have begun.

Russian Olympic athletes doping ban news

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected the Russians’ plea to overturn a decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) not to allow them to compete over doping concerns.

One of the athletes banned from competing in Pyeongchang is Viktor Ahn, a highly-decorated speed skater who was born in South Korea and competed for the nation before becoming a naturalized Russian citizen.

Nevertheless, 169 Russians will compete as independents.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko said the CAS’s decision was understandable but disappointing.

“It is difficult for CAS to take a decision in the light of previous pressure. If they had allowed [the invitations] it would have been a shock,” said Mutko, a former sports minister who has himself been banned from the Olympics for life.

The group contesting the decision included 28 athletes who had life bans from the Olympics lifted by the IOC last week, when CAS ruled there was insufficient evidence they had gained unfair advantage from a Russian government-sponsored doping program.

The Pyeongchang Olympics run from Feb. 9 to 25 in South Korea.

The 169 sportspeople who have been invited to attend will compete under the Olympic flag rather than a Russian flag. Should they win any medals, the Olympic anthem will be played.

Russia’s systemic state-sponsored doping program was thoroughly investigated, and the findings revealed that the illicit practices — which included tampering with athletes’ urine samples — dated back to the 2014 Winter Olympics, which were held in Sochi, Russia.

Craig Reedie, President of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), said the “timing of these decisions just before the opening ceremony in Pyeongchang is good as it will reassure athletes and others that only Russian athletes (who) have met strict anti-doping guidelines will be participating in the Games.”

SOCHI, RUSSIA – FEBRUARY 23: Gold medalist Alexander Legkov of Russia celebrates in the medal ceremony for the Men’s 50 km Mass Start Free during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony at Fisht Olympic Stadium on February 23, 2014 in Sochi, Russia. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Russian runner Mariya Savinova, a London 2012 gold medallist, has been stripped of her 800m title and banned until 2019.

Russian Olympian Mariya Savinova Banned, Stripped Of Title for Doping

Savinova, 31, has had all her results from July 2010 to August 2013 annulled after being found guilty of doping.

The Russian defeated South African Caster Semenya into second at the London Olympics and the 2011 Worlds in Daegu, South Korea.

Savinova also defeated Britain’s Jenny Meadows into bronze at the 2010 Europeans. Both Semenya and Meadows could now have their medals upgraded.

Among the other medals Savinova will lose are her her 800m gold from the 2011 World Championships and the European Championships in 2010.

She will also forfeit her 2013 World Championship silver.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport’s statement on Friday read:

“On the basis of clear evidence, including the evidence derived from her biological passport (ABP), Mariya Savinova is found to have been engaged in using doping from 26 July 2010 (the eve of the European Championship in Barcelona) through to 19 August 2013 (the day after the World Championship in Moscow).

“As a consequence, a four-year period of ineligibility, beginning on 24 August 2015, has been imposed and all results achieved between 26 July 2010 and 19 August 2013, are disqualified and any prizes, medals, prize and appearance money forfeited.”

Savinova was one of five Russian athletes named in a World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report about doping.

She has not competed since 2013 after being suspended during an investigation that began following the release of undercover footage filmed by whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova.

Should Semenya indeed receive a gold medal for the London 2012 final as a result, it would be her second one after she claimed the 800m title in Rio last summer.

Savinova joins one other Russian finalist who has been retrospectively banned: Yelena Arzhakova. A third, bronze medallist Ekaterina Poistogova, is also being investigated for doping.

Most of the Russian track and field team were banned from competing at the Rio 2016 Olympics.

LONDON, ENGLAND – AUGUST 11: Mariya Savinova of Russia celebrates afte winning gold in the Women’s 800m Final on Day 15 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at Olympic Stadium on August 11, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Russia’s Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko has said he welcomes the International Olympic Committee’s decision to open investigations into allegations of Russian doping.

Russia’s Sports Minister Welcomes IOC Probes After Doping Evidence

Following the release Monday of a World Anti-Doping Agency report that accused the country — and its sports ministry — of covering up hundreds of doping incidents, the IOC opened investigations into top Russian officials and demanded that major upcoming winter sports events be moved out of Russia.

A figure skating Grand Prix in Moscow on Nov. 4-6 and a ski jumping World Cup on Dec. 9-11 in Nizhny Tagil are the first events set to be moved from Russia.

The IOC also stated it will “explore the legal options with regard to a collective ban of all Russian athletes” from next month’s Rio Olympics.

Mutko told Russia’s state Tass news agency that “we absolutely share and support today’s decisions,” and added the primary issue was not Russian doping but rather “an unprecedented attack on the whole Olympic movement,” without providing any further details.

Early Tuesday, Mutko denied all wrongdoing and said he expected his subordinates to be cleared as well.

Two-time Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva made her case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) Tuesday morning that Russian track and field athletes not banned for doping be allowed to compete at the Rio de Janeiro Games.

Leaving a CAS appeal hearing held amid unusual secrecy in Geneva, Isinbayeva told state-owned news channel Russia 24 that she addressed the judging panel and was “optimistic” about the outcome.

The CAS hopes to reach a verdict on Thursday in the appeal filed by Russia’s national Olympic body on behalf of 68 athletes.

The ruling will guide the IOC executive board as it determines whether to ban all Russian teams from the Rio Games.

The Russian appeal challenges an IAAF ruling to suspend the All-Russian Athletic Federation and its athletes from international competition due to a nationwide, state-sponsored conspiracy of doping and cover-ups.

The IAAF imposed the ban last November and upheld it last month.

MOSCOW, RUSSIA – AUGUST 13: Elena Isinbaeva of Russia competes in the Women’s pole vault final during Day Four of the 14th IAAF World Athletics Championships Moscow 2013 at Luzhniki Stadium on August 13, 2013 in Moscow, Russia. (Photo by Ian Walton/Getty Images)

The world’s top anti-doping officials called on Monday for Russia to be banned from this summer’s Olympic Games in Rio after an independent investigation led by a Canadian law professor has confirmed evidence of widespread, state-sponsored doping in Russian sports.

New Report Confirms State-Sponsored Doping By Russia At Olympics

Richard McLaren of Western University in London, Ontario released his findings Monday at a news conference in Toronto, stating labs in Moscow and Sochi protected Russian athletes. The findings confirm a Russian whistle-blower’s claims of government-ordered cheating at the 2014 Sochi Olympics.

In short, Russia’s deputy minister of sports, who was also a member of Russia’s Olympic Committee, directed employees at Moscow’s anti-doping laboratory of which positive samples to send through and which to retain.

Russia’s national security service, the FSB– the modern-day version of the Soviet Union’s KGB– was also involved.

McLaren stated Russia’s cheating program, which he dubbed the “disappearing positive methodology,” lasted from 2011– shortly after the country’s disappointing performance at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics– to at least last year’s world swimming championships in Kazan, Russia. His timeframe includes the 2013 track and field world championships in Moscow.

McLaren added that out of 577 positive sample screenings, 312 positive results were retained– or labeled “Save” by the lab workers– but that only represented only a small portion of the data that could have been evaluated. More than 240 of the 312 “Saves” came from track and field and wrestling, although other sports involved included swimming, rowing, snowboarding, and table tennis.

According to McLaren’s 97-page report, which was commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, the lab at the Sochi Olympics “operated a unique sample swapping methodology” that allowed Russian athletes to compete at the 2014 Winter Games, where the host country topped the award table with 13 gold medals and 33 medals overall.

Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that his country’s officials named in the report will be temporarily suspended, but demanded more detailed and “objective” information, claiming the report was based on the testimony of only one man (whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov).

In a statement released by the Kremlin, Putin said there was no place for doping in sport, as it represented a threat to the lives and health of the athletes and discredited fair play.

“Today we see a dangerous relapse of politics intruding into sports,” Mr. Putin said in a statement.

The International Olympic Committee, which has the sole authority to ban an entire delegation, called the actions outlined in the report a “shocking and unprecedented attack on the integrity of sport,” and pledged to pursue “the toughest possible sanctions available against any individual or organization implicated.”

Top Olympic executives were next due to meet in Rio, two days before the Games begin on Aug. 5, but the I.O.C. said Monday it had scheduled a meeting for Tuesday to discuss “provisional measures and sanctions.”

Hours after McLaren presented his report, the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) recommended that the IOC and the International Paralympic Committee ban all Russian athletes from the Rio Games.

WADA also said Russian government officials should be denied access to international competitions, including Rio 2016, and the organization also called on world governing bodies of sports implicated in the report to consider action against Russian national bodies.

Other organizations, including the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport and the United States Anti-Doping agency, had already said they would call for a blanket ban on Russia for the Rio Games if McLaren’s report displayed evidence of a widespread, state-sponsored doping conspiracy. McLaren’s report said it did, and the investigator stated he was “unwaveringly confident in my report.”

Russia’s track and field athletes are already banned from representing their country at the Rio Olympics as part of the fallout from a doping scandal that began late last year when a WADA-commissioned investigation led by Canadian Dick Pound, and including McLaren, uncovered a widespread, state-sponsored doping program in Russia.

Among those not in favor of a full Russian ban was the head of gymnastics — a sport that was not among the 28 with non-reported positives.

“The right to participate at the games cannot be stolen from an athlete, who has duly qualified and has not be found guilty of doping,” said Bruno Grandi, president of gymnastics’ international federation. “Blanket bans have never been and will never be just.”

LONDON, ENGLAND – AUGUST 06: Yuliya Zaripova of Russia celebrates after winning the gold medal in the Women’s 3000m Steeplechase final on Day 10 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium on August 6, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Russian athletes who pass an individual test by the International Association of Athletics Federations to show they are clean will be allowed to compete for their country at the Rio Games in August, Olympics chief Thomas Bach said early Tuesday.

IOC President Allows Vetted Russian Athletes To Compete At Rio Games

“If there are athletes qualified then they will compete as members of the team of the Russian Olympic Committee,” Bach, who is the president of the International Olympic Committee, told reporters.

Bach also dismissed suggestions that Russian track and field stars could compete under a neutral or Olympic flag, as had been speculated after the IAAF extended its ban on these athletes on Friday. The ban extension came after Russian government officials and coaches were found to have been involved in assisting in the doping of said track and field athletes.

In explaining his equivocating, Bach, who is a lawyer and former fencer, said only national organizing committees can enter athletes in the Games. Except that isn’t exactly the case.

Athletes from the former Yugoslavia competed under the Olympic flag in Barcelona because their country’s breakup left them with no nation to represent. Similarly, a marathoner from South Sudan competed under the Olympic flag in London because his newly formed country did not yet have an Olympic committee.

Earlier this month, the IOC approved a 10-person refugee team that will compete under the Olympic flag.

“There is no contradiction,” Bach insisted. “The Russian Olympic Committee is not suspended, and if you read again the report of the IAAF task force, there you see that the Russian Olympic Committee was very helpful in clearing up the difficult situation in Russia.”

The report from the World Anti-Doping Agency released last week reveals positive tests, athletes not reporting their whereabouts and interference with doping control officers, among other issues.

LONDON, ENGLAND – AUGUST 06: Yuliya Zaripova of Russia celebrates after winning the gold medal in the Women’s 3000m Steeplechase final on Day 10 of the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Olympic Stadium on August 6, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)