The International Paralympic Committee has issued a blanket ban on Russian athletes participating in the Games this summer in Rio.
In an announcement on Sunday, the IPC stated that they had taken the move as a result of the doping scandal which has rocked Russian sport.
Noting that it was a difficult decision, IPC President Sir Philip Craven said that they had to take it "in the best interest of the Paralympic movement today, and moving forward."
Craven said that he feels for those athletes who are clean and will miss the games as a result, stating that they have been "catastrophically failed" by the Russian system.
The moment the IPC confirmed Russia were not welcome at the Rio Paralympics pic.twitter.com/n1VhQeD7Iy
— Dan Roan (@danroan) 7 August 2016
"They are part of a broken system, and we sincerely hope that the changes that need to happen, do happen," added Craven.
"We look forward to the day when we can welcome the Russian Parlaympic Committee back as a member, safe in the knowledge that it is fulfilling all its obligations.
"We want people watching Paralympic sports to have confidence in the amazing feats that they see," concluded Craven.
Given Russia's huge haul of medals at the Sochi Paralympics, the IPC delegation also confirmed that they planned to re-analyse the samples from those Games.
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