The unprecedented step was taken by the International Association of Athletics Federations because an expert task force ruled that Russia had not taken sufficient steps to overhaul its testing procedures and prove its athletes were clean. Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, described the decision as “unjust and unfair”.

Although good progress has been made the IAAF Council was unanimous that Russian athletes could not credibly return to international competition without undermining the confidence of their competitors and the public,” said Lord Coe, the IAAF president who has himself been under pressure over what he knew and when about the Russian doping crisis.

“This is a sad day for our sport. There is a humanity here that tells you very simply that this was not an easy decision or lightly taken,” he added.

But the IAAF said that, on the advice of outside lawyers, it had left open a “crack in the door” for Russian athletes who could prove they had been training outside the country to compete under a neutral banner, including whistleblower Yulia Stepanov.

However, there are understood to be only three or four athletes who meet that criterion. “There won’t be many athletes who will get through the crack in that door. They have to demonstrate they are not tainted by the system in Russia,” said Rune Andersen, the head of the task force.

The decision, accepted unanimously by the 24 voting members of the IAAF Council, was damning and concluded that it was impossible to tell whether Russian athletes were clean or not because the system had not been sufficiently reformed.

“The deep seated culture of tolerance [or worse] for doping that got the Russian Athletics Federation [RusAF] suspended in the first place appears not to have changed materially to date,” it said.

“The head coach of the Russian athletics team and many of the athletes on that team appear unwilling to acknowledge the nature and extent of the doping problem in Russian athletics; and certain athletes and coaches appear willing to ignore the doping rules.”

The ban leaves the country that was second in the athletics medal table in London, before being accused of “sabotaging” the 2012 Games with its systemic doping, unable to add to its tally in Rio.

Andersen said: “Because the system in Russia has been tainted from the top down we can’t trust that what we might call clean athletes are clean.”

In another damning report, the World Anti-Doping Agency this week revealed that even since they were banned, 736 tests required from Russian athletes had been declined or cancelled. There were also 52 positive tests during the same period.

It said that one athlete had tried to cheat testers using a container of clean urine inserted inside her body and, when that failed, attempting the bribe the official taking the sample. Another athlete simply attempted to run away after finishing their race.

Asked why Russia had not simply been banned outright Andersen, the Norwegian anti-doping expert who led the taskforce, said that external counsel had advised that such a move would fail the “proportionality” test – hence the “crack in the door”.

Other Russian athletes, including the double Olympic gold medallist Yelena Isinbayeva, had said they will appeal. Following the decision Isinbayeva said the Olympic ban was “discrimination against Russians” and said she would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

“This is a human rights violation. I will not remain silent, I will take measures,” she told the Tass news agency. “I’m upset for myself and the team of clean athletes who ended up out of work. No one protected us, no one defended our rights and the IAAF’s position on protecting the rights of clean athletes raises big doubts.

“We are being accused of something we didn’t do. I first of all consider this to be discrimination against Russians.”

Following an 11-month review forced by revelations in an ARD documentary in Germany, Pound’s commission in November found evidence of “interference with doping controls up to middle of this year” as well as “cover ups, destruction of samples [and] payment of money to conceal doping tests”.

It found that the head of the Moscow lab, Grigory Rodchenko, admitted to intentionally destroying 1,417 samples in December 2014 shortly before Wada officials were due to visit.

Rodchenko later told the New York Times that he had doped 15 medallists at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014 and gave a detailed description of how Russian secret service agents allegedly swapped samples.

Andersen said that evidence collected by Professor Richard McLaren, who is conducting an ongoing separate probe into Rodchenko’s claims, had been pivotal in leading to the conclusion that Russia had not done enough to reform its doping culture.

Pound’s independent commission found the London 2012 Olympics were “sabotaged” by the “widespread inaction” against Russian athletes with suspicious doping profiles by the world athletics governing body and the Russian federation.

It outlined a culture of cheating in which Russian coaches were “out of control” and expected the anti-doping agency to protect their athletes rather than catch them. Athletes were left with little choice but to participate in doping programmes if they wanted to make the team.

The Russian sports minister, Vitaly Mutko, already on the back foot over hooliganism by Russian fans at the Euro 2016 football tournament, said the ban was expected and that it would immediately consider taking legal action.

Individual athletes are expected to launch appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and the International Olympic Committee will hold a summit with sports leaders next week to consider the issue.

Many have long suspected Thomas Bach, the IOC president, is close to Putin, wants to find a way to readmit some Russian athletes. But the pressure on the IOC from athletes outside Russia has grown in recent weeks. The IOC president will hold an emergency teleconference with the executive board over the weekend ahead of the summit in Lausanne.

Coe was also foced to defend himself against allegations that he was assisted in his bid to become IAAF president by Papa Massata Diack, the son of his disgraced predecessor Lamine, and that he lied to a parliamentary select committee about what he knew and when about the cover up of positive Russian drug tests.

He said he was happy to return to face the culture, media and sport select committee but insisted he had acted properly at all times.

The Russian sports ministry said it was “extremely disappointed”. “Clean athletes’ dreams are being destroyed because of the reprehensible behaviour of other athletes and officials. They have sacrificed years of their lives striving to compete at the Olympics and now that sacrifice looks likely to be wasted,” it said.

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