"Today, we have been dealing with the failure of Araf and made the decision to provisionally suspend them, the toughest sanction we can apply at this time," IAAF president Sebastian Coe said. "But we discussed and agreed that the whole system has failed the athletes, not just in Russia, but around the world.
"This has been a shameful wake-up call and we are clear that cheating at any level will not be tolerated. To this end, the IAAF, WADA, the member federations and athletes need to look closely at ourselves, our cultures and our processes to identify where failures exist and be tough in our determination to fix them and rebuild trust in our sport. There can be no more important focus for our sport."
Coe chaired a three-hour video conference involving 24 of his 27-strong executive, 22 of whom voted in favour of a ban. One voted against, while council member Mikhail Butov excluded from the ballot after being allowed to present Araf's case.
"We are 100 per cent in support of president Coe and believe that he is the leader that our sport needs to instigate the necessary actions swiftly and strongly," council member and former Olympic sprinter Frankie Fredericks said.
The council also determined a hearing would take place, probably next month, to determine whether the provisional sanction becomes a full ban unless Russia voluntarily accepts the latter punishment.
That appeared unlikely, with the country's sports minister, Vitaly Mutko, branding yesterday's decision "very strange".
Suggesting the suspension may be lifted in time for March's world indoor championships, he added: "I don't think they could have taken any other decision with the sword of Damocles that they had over their heads, with the pressure exerted on the commission."
WADA informed the IAAF prior to yesterday's meeting that Araf were not compliant with the WADA code and the federation look certain to remain banned until declared compliant again, which is unlikely to be for months.
Russia would also need to fulfil a list of criteria, the fulfilment of which will be monitored by an independent inspection team.
"We have clear instructions from the president to find common ground with the international organisations and I will do that, I will co-operate with them," Mutko said before today's meeting after revealing he was open to the idea of a new anti-doping body involving foreign expertise. "If we need to fire everyone, we will do that."
However, he also accused the IAAF of covering up more than 150 doping cases, mostly of athletes from outside Russia.
"The IAAF since 2008 or 2009 hid not just Russian athletes' samples but 155 cases that they then pulled out with about 15 of our athletes," he said.
Mutko was "completely sure" Russia would be at the Olympics, adding: "We may miss one or two competitions, but for athletes with clean consciences to miss the Olympics or a world championships would be real stupidity."
