Russia has decided to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to overturn the International Athletics Federation's (World Athletics) decision to maintain the ban on its athletes, according to an announcement by the country's athletics federation on Thursday.

The federation's statement said: 'The Russian Athletics Federation notes that the World Athletics decision affects the fundamental interests of athletics in Russia and restricts the right of Russian athletes to compete, on grounds that the federation considers discriminatory.'

The International Olympic Committee decided on Tuesday to lift restrictions imposed on Russian athletes due to the invasion of Ukraine, allowing them to return to team sports and participate in qualifiers for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, but without the national anthem and flag for now.

However, World Athletics maintained the complete exclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes, citing a lack of 'any tangible progress towards peace negotiations.'

The IOC's sports director Pierre Ducrey warned that the return of Russians to the global sports arena would happen in a 'fragmented landscape' differing by each sport.

In October and December of last year, through two separate rulings, the Court of Arbitration for Sport cracked down on the most stringent international sports bodies toward Russians, deeming the ban imposed by the luge federation as 'disproportionate' and the ban on Russian skiers as discriminatory.

Outside of emergency cases, CAS proceedings typically take several months, first requiring the appointment of three arbitrators and setting a hearing date.

Russia is a major sports power, but it has been banned from flying its colors at the Olympic arena since 2016, first due to the state-sponsored systematic doping scandal, which forced it to compete under the Olympic flag in 2018 and later under the Russian Olympic Committee name in 2021 and 2022, and then due to the invasion of Ukraine.

Shortly after the conclusion of the Winter Olympics in Beijing in February 2022, the Russian army launched an attack on Ukraine with support from Belarus, leading to a series of sports sanctions reflecting the scale of Western anger over the invasion.

After a period of complete exclusion, the IOC gradually began reintegrating athletes starting in March 2023 under a neutral flag, with strict conditions and excluding team competitions, especially for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris and the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina.

In recent months, IOC president, Zimbabwe's Kirsty Coventry, hinted at a trend toward more comprehensive reintegration, stressing the importance of 'keeping sport as a neutral ground, a place where every athlete can compete freely, without being hindered by the policies or divisions of their governments.'

At the end of June, during the 146th IOC Session in Lausanne, this principle was further enshrined in the Olympic Charter, which states that the organization's role is 'to apply neutrality at all times, free from any government, cultural, social, or economic pressure.'

Moreover, the Executive Board recommended last December the return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to age-group competitions, including team sports, with their flags and national anthems.