Following the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Executive Committee's approval of a plan to impose a four-year global ban against Russia, the UCI told Cycling News that it is "closely monitoring" the case. Russia may appeal the sanction to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

"The International Cycling Union (UCI) notes the decision of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) to exclude Russia from the international sporting movement for four years. As a signatory to the World Anti-Doping Code, the UCI is closely monitoring the non-compliance proceedings and will enforce this decision for cycling once it is finalized," a UCI spokesman said.

Russian cyclists will no longer be able to compete as a national team at the Olympics and "major events" (including various world championships designated by the UCI), but will be allowed to compete under a neutral flag, according to the WADA decision.

"Russian cyclists wishing to participate in competitions and UCI World Championships will need to prove their integrity on an individual basis," the UCI said. To this end, the UCI will set up an eligibility procedure on a case-by-case basis." The Federation is closely monitoring developments related to this decision."

Meanwhile, AFP reported that the head of RUSADA said it was unlikely that CAS would overturn the ban.

"There is no chance of winning in court," RUSADA head Yury Ganu told AFP. 'This is a tragedy. Clean athletes are seeing their rights restricted."

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev told AFP that it was "impossible to deny" that doping had taken place, but that those involved had already been punished. Commenting on the new sanctions, Medvedev said, "This is a continuation of the already chronic anti-Russian hysteria."

Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov called the decision political and supported an appeal to CAS.

"I think it is right to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport," Kolobkov said, adding that the chances of the ban being overturned were "quite high."

An appeal to CAS could be a delaying tactic that would prevent the ban from taking effect until after the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo.

If the ban goes into effect, the onus will be on the athletes to prove that they were not involved in a doping scheme in order to be allowed to compete.

According to InsidetheGames.biz, WADA forensic analysts were able to obtain the names of athletes suspected of doping from Moscow's Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) data from 2012 to 2015, despite the tampering, and and included some of the 145 athletes on the most suspect list.

WADA's director of information and investigation, Günter Jänger, said that about one-third of these athletes are still competing.

Jonathan Taylor, chair of WADA's Compliance Review Committee, said athletes must prove they are not involved in the scheme in order to compete.

"If athletes from Russia can prove that they are not involved in an institutionalized doping program, that their data is not part of the operation, that they have been fully tested prior to the competition in question, and that they meet other stringent conditions to be determined, they will be allowed to compete," Taylor stated.

." The CRC, including the athletes, were unanimous in their view that while it is understandable that all Russian athletes should be banned uniformly, regardless of whether they were involved in the data or not, in this case, athletes who could prove their innocence should not be punished."

If Russia chooses not to appeal the sanctions, the first test for cycling could be the UCI Cyclocross World Championships as early as early February. Russia has an active athlete, Daria Fomina, who is eligible to compete in the U23 women's category.

Perhaps the Russian track athletes will have to prove themselves before the UCI Track World Championships, which begin on February 26 in Berlin. [Russian sprinters are fifth and sixth in the men's team sprint and individual sprint, respectively, third in the women's individual sprint and women's keirin, and first in the women's team sprint.

Daria Shmeleva is the world champion in the 500m time trial with her team sprint partner Anastasia Voinova. The pair won a silver medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

In 2016, the Russian endurance team was hit by the exclusion of three individual pursuit athletes, Dmitry Sokolov, Kirill Sveshnikov, and Dmitry Strakhov, from the Olympics after they were named in McLaren's report on doping in Russia The team was also hit by the exclusion of three athletes from the Olympics.

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