Russia's Athletic Federation (Araf) has been provisionally suspended by the IAAF following allegations of "state-sponsored doping" in a World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) independent report, says BBC Sport's Richard Conway.

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In the wake of the independent Wada report, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered an investigation into claims the country's athletes have been part of a systematic doping programme.

Putin also said athletes should be punished individually, rather than collectively.

"Sportsmen who don't dope - and never have - must not answer for those who break the rules," he said.

"If we find that someone must be held responsible for something of the sort that breaks the rules in place against doping, then the responsibility must be personalised - that's the rule."

He added: "The battle must be open. A sporting contest is only interesting when it is honest."

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In the aftermath of the report, IAAF president Lord Coe said Russia could face sanctions and even suspension from athletics' world governing body.

He told BBC sports news correspondent Richard Conway the findings had been a surprise and that "the scale and depth of the allegations is truly shocking".

"It is the right thing to do to get them to give us an answer," he said.

"I am responsible for the conduct of my sport and I want answers from the Russian athletics federation.

"I am tough enough to defend my sport but the point I would emphasise is this is not just limited to athletics or Russia.

"We clearly have to understand full scope of allegations. We will look at ourselves. We will move quickly on this. I want to see a sport which is transparent and accountable and I will do what I can to do that. It will not be a swift road."

The Wada independent report was commissioned on a "very narrow mandate" to "determine the accuracy" of allegations made in a German TV documentary about Russian athletics last December.

It claimed Russian athletes paid 5% of their earnings to domestic doping officials to supply banned substances and cover-up tests, while athletics' world governing body the IAAF was implicated in covering up the abuse.

The programme's claims of widespread doping were made by former Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) official Vitaly Stepanov and his wife Yulia (nee Rusanova), formerly an 800m runner who was banned for doping.

It included testimony from Russian athletes admitting to using banned substances and evidence of doping and corruption.

Separate doping claims were made in August when The Sunday Times and a German broadcaster claimed that leaked blood tests from 5,000 athletes over 11 years showed an "extraordinary extent of cheating".

Mike Skipper on Facebook:, external "As a serving England manager of one of the nation's angling squads, I'll be very disappointed if the IAAF do not take the most serious of decisions tonight.

"Even in angling we have to abide by the rules as dictated by WADA. Blatant drug taking and bending of the rules deserved the nation to be held responsible for their actions.

"However, I also feel sorry for those athletes and others sports personalities who are clean; and that will miss out on future championships."

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Dick Pound is the head of the commission that produced the report and is a former president of Wada.

"For 2016, our recommendation is that the Russian Federation be suspended," he said earlier this week when revealing the findings of the report.

"In fact, one of our hopes is that they will volunteer that, so that they can take the remedial work in time to make sure that Russian athletes can compete under a new framework." 

He added: "It's worse than we thought, It has the effect of factually affecting the results on the field of play and athletes, both in Russia and abroad, are suffering as a result."

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Wada's independent report also: 

• Said that Russian security service FSB were present at the Moscow and Sochi labs and that this was part of a wider pattern of "direct intimidation and interference by the Russian state with the Moscow laboratory operations."
• Found that Rusada gave athletes advance notice of tests, hid missed tests, bullied doping control officers and their families and took bribes to cover up missed tests.
• Found that a number of Russian athletes suspected of doping could have been prevented from competing at the London 2012 Olympics had it not been for "the collective and inexplicable laissez-faire policy" adopted by the IAAF and the Russian athletics federation.
• Found that Russian law enforcement was involved in efforts to "interfere with integrity of samples". 
• Found evidence of multiple rules breaches by IAAF officials and found the governing body to be "inexplicably lax in following up suspicious blood (and other) profiles". 

As you can imagine, it's pretty serious stuff so let's go through some of the main points from the report which: 

• Revealed many instances of inadequate testing and poor compliance around testing standards.
• Suggested that neither the Russian athletics federation (Araf) the Russian anti-doping agency (Rusada), nor the Russian Federation can be considered anti-doping code-compliant.
• Recommended that Wada withdraw its accreditation of the Moscow laboratory as soon as possible and advocated the permanent removal of its director Grigory Rodchenko, whom it accuses of asking for and accepting bribes and intentionally destroying samples he was told to keep. 
• Confirmed allegations that some Russian doctors and/or laboratory personnel acted as enablers for systematic cheating along with athletics coaches.
• Identified the intentional and malicious destruction of more than 1,400 samples by Moscow laboratory officials after receiving written notification from Wada to preserve target samples. 

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We have reached this stage of affairs after Wada's independent commission examined allegations of doping, cover-ups, and extortion in Russian athletics, which also implicated the IAAF.

It says London 2012 was "sabotaged" by "widespread inaction" against athletes with suspicious doping profiles.

The report also put forward that five Russian athletes and five coaches should be given lifetime doping bans.

If you were an IAAF member with a vote, what would you do? Do Russia's athletes deserve to be suspended or not? 

Let us know at #bbcathletics or post a message on our Facebook page., external

Richard Conway
BBC Radio 5 live sports news correspondent

"Two-and-a-half hours now since the meeting was supposed to have started and no sign of movement from the 6th floor of the office block in central London where Lord Coe is chairing the meeting.

"The silence won't last for long though. The decision is looming."

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One person who will be voting to have Russia suspended is Sylvia Barlag, the Dutch IAAF council member.

"I am ready to ask for a provisional suspension of ARAF," she told BBC Radio 5 live. "This is only the first step in a process. 

"I would think under the discussion we will come up with a provisional suspension where they are posed a few conditions under which they will be allowed to return. 

"The case, as far as it is proven by WADA, is there. We don't have to prove that again. 

"I am sure many members of the council are saying we shouldn't suspend them because it will punish the clean athletes. I totally understand that. 

"However, I still think we should suspend. It is not about the individual athletes. It is about the system."

The IAAF meeting started at 18:00 GMT and one of the first events was Mikhail Butov of Russia detailing the position of his country's athletics federation (Araf).

He will then be excluded from the meeting and voting.

The remainder of the debate will involve: 

• Individual Council Member interventions 
• President Lord Coe's response and close of debate
• A vote - it's one member one vote and the decision of the majority prevails. In the event of a tie, IAAF president Lord Coe has the casting vote. 
• The decision will then be relayed (excuse the pun) to ARAF and the council members before being filtered down to the rest of us.

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To give you the specifics, a World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) independent report accused Russia of "state-sponsored doping" and recommended the country's athletes be banned from Rio 2016.

The Russian athletics federation, Araf, had until the end of the week to respond to the allegations, which they have done.

In its defence, Russia claimed "irregularities" around its drug-testing system were down to the sport's "old leadership". 

The IAAF are currently considering Russia's response and we will find out shortly.