Russia has been banned for four years from global sporting events including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics over doping.

It means the Russian flag and national anthem will not be allowed at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and the Beijing Winter Olympics.

The World Anti-Doping Agency executive committee confirmed the decision at the International Olympic Committee headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The committee reached a unanimous decision to punish Russia after accusing Moscow of falsifying data from an anti-doping laboratory.

The Russian Olympic Committee headquarters in Moscow, Russia. The World Anti-Doping Agency executive committee made the decision at a meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland

Russia's Anti Doping Agency (RUSADA) has 21 days to appeal against the ban after the sanctions effectively strip the agency of its accreditation.

RUSADA chief Yury Ganus branded the doping ban a 'tragedy' for clean Russian athletes.

Ganus said: 'There is no chance of winning this case in court. This is a tragedy. Clean athletes are seeing their rights limited.'

If it does appeal, the case will be referred to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Ganus said the WADA ban was the toughest punishment and added: 'We have a president and we are waiting for decisive changes from him.'

RUSADA chief Yury Ganus (pictured) branded the doping ban a 'tragedy' for clean Russian athletes and said there is 'no chance' of winning the ban appeal

But athletes untainted by the scandal will be allowed to compete independently under a neutral flag, as was the case during the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics and last summer's World Athletics Championships in Doha.

However, WADA's inability to fully expel Russia from the Tokyo Olympics and 2022 Beijing Winter Games frustrated the doping watchdog's vice president.

'I'm not happy with the decision we made today. But this is as far as we could go,' said Linda Helleland, a Norwegian MP who serves on WADA's executive committee.

The ban means the Russian flag and national anthem will not be allowed at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and the Beijing Winter Olympics. Closing ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics at the Fisht Olympic Stadium

'This is the biggest sports scandal the world has ever seen. I would expect now a full admission from the Russians and for them to apologise on all the pain all the athletes and sports fans have experienced.'

For the 2022 Fifa World Cup, WADA said the Russian team will play under its name in the qualifying stages in Europe.

However if it qualifies for the tournament in Qatar, the name will have to be changed to something neutral that would most likely not include the word 'Russia'.

Some Russian officials, meanwhile, have branded the call for sanctions unfair and likened it to broader Western attempts to hold back the country.

Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov last month attributed the discrepancies in the laboratory data to technical issues.

Kolobkov said the ban was politically motivated, adding that Russia had done a lot to clean up sport in coordination with WADA.

Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov said aid the ban was politically motivated, adding that Russia had done a lot to clean up sport in coordination with WADA. Pictured in Lausanne

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that those involved had already been punished

'I believe it would be right to turn to the Court of Arbitration for Sport,' he told reporters, saying he believed Russia's chances in an appeal were 'quite good'.

Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that it was 'impossible to deny' that doping had taken place but that those involved had already been punished.

Many in Russian athletes also said the ban was political.

'I have no words... How can you mock athletes who have been preparing all their lives for this?' said Aslanbek Khushtov, who won wrestling gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

However, Russia will be able to compete at Euro 2020 next summer, which it has qualified for and is a tournament host with games due to be played at St Petersburg.

European football's governing body does not fall under the definition of a Major Events Organisation under the international compliance code.

International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach at the International Olympic Committee headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland

WADA concluded that Moscow had tampered with laboratory data by planting fake evidence and deleting files linked to positive doping tests that could have helped identify drug cheats.

The decision was made after considering recommendations from its independent compliance review committee (CRC).

The CRC made its recommendations based on evidence presented to it by WADA's intelligence and investigations (I&I) team.

Russia will be able to compete at Euro 2020 next summer, which it has qualified for and is a tournament host with games due to be played at St Petersburg, Russia

The I&I team found there were inconsistencies in data handed over to WADA in January 2019 by Russia under the terms of its reinstatement to compliance in September 2018.

The data provided was inconsistent with a copy of the database supplied to WADA by a whistleblower in 2017, in that positive findings present in 2017 were missing from the 2019 data.

The I&I team found that some of the manipulation and deletion had occurred as recently as December 2018 and January 2019 - after reinstatement.

Russia has been embroiled in doping scandals since a 2015 report commissioned by WADA found evidence of mass doping in Russian athletics.

Russia has been embroiled in doping scandals since a 2015 report commissioned by WADA found evidence of mass doping in Russian athletics. Pictured: Russian Olympic Committee in Moscow

Its doping woes have grown since, with many of its athletes sidelined from the past two Olympics.

Handing over a clean database to WADA was a key requirement for Russia to help bring closure to a scandal that has tainted the Olympics over the last decade.

Although the IOC has called for the strongest possible sanctions, it wants those sanctions directed at Russian state authorities rather than athletes or Olympic officials.

That position was opposed by most of WADA's athlete commission who wanted a blanket ban that Russia avoided for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games.

The state-run doping programme was exposed by media and WADA investigations after Russia hosted the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.

'This entire fiasco created by Russia has cheated far too many athletes of their dreams and rightful careers, for far too long,' the WADA athlete panel said in a statement ahead of the meeting.

The country was stripped of its flag altogether at last year's Pyeongchang Winter Games as punishment for state-sponsored doping cover-ups at the 2014 Sochi Games.

One of the conditions for the reinstatement of Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA, which was suspended in 2015 in the wake of the athletics doping scandal but reinstated last year, had been that Moscow provide an authentic copy of the laboratory data.