The agency's executive committee made the announcement after meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland. The announcement was in line with a November 22 report from the agency's compliance review committee; the 12-member executive committee's vote was unanimous.

It's not just the Olympics, either (2020 in Japan, 2022 in Beijing). Russia cannot participate in international competition at all. That includes the Youth Olympic Games, the Paralympics, and even the 2022 FIFA World Cup (in Qatar), as well as any other major world sporting events whose participants are governed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Russia cannot play host to any international sporting event or even apply to be such a host; as well, no official representing the Russian government or the Russian Olympic Committee can attend such events.

The small but important technicality is that the Russian flag cannot fly at any such event, representing the Russian sports federation and the country of Russia. Athletes who hail from Russia can still compete if they are not found to have violated any WADA policies but would have to compete unattached to their country. This was the case during the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyongcheong, South Korea. At those Games, 168 athletes from Russia competed under the designation Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) and the Olympic flag. Such athletes who won a medal saw the Olympic flag flying and the Olympic theme playing during the medal ceremony. This occurred in Pyongcheong, most notably when a team of Russian players won the gold medal in hockey.

WADA made the decision after examining a large amount of evidence of a systematic and long-running system of doping in order to boost athletes' performance. The final blow was a recent set of events, in which Russia missed a deadline to turn over new data so that WADA officials could check whether Russia was complying, as it had been directed to, in order to end the current three-year ban; Russia missed the deadline and then, when it did forward the required information, WADA officials found evidence of data manipulation. The original ban stemmed from evidence of widespread doping that involved more than 600 positive tests being hidden and denied. A consequence of that ban was that 111 athletes were barred from competing at the 2016 Olympic Games.

Russia has 21 days to appeal, to the Court of Arbitration for Sport; a verdict from that body would be final.