The World Anti-Doping Agency’s decision to ban Russia from international sport for four years has divided sporting figures in the country, with some branding the punishment as a western conspiracy but others insisting “we got what we deserved”.

While sporting officials said they would appeal against a ban that would let ‘clean’ athletes compete under a neutral flag at the Tokyo Olympics next year, the heads of several sporting federations and politicians denounced the Wada decision as “politicised”.

They were led by Russia’s prime minister, Dmitry Medvedev, who, while admitting “significant doping problems still exist” in Russia’s sporting community, labelled Wada’s decision as part of “chronic anti-Russian hysteria” that affected athletes who “had already been punished”.

Svetlana Zhurova, a retired Olympic speedskater and a current member of Russia’s parliament, told Russian television the decision “hurt me personally as an athlete … why lay collective responsibility [for the doping scandal] on a 15-year-old girl? On our fantastic figure skaters, synchronised swimmers or athletes in sports where nobody has even heard about a doping scandal?”

In an interview on state-run television, Vladimir Drachev, the head of the Russian Biathlon Union, called the decision “extremely wrong and biased. The decision made today is a political one rather than one related to sports,” Drachev said, adding that blocking young athletes from representing Russia is “wrong”. “Sports should stay separate from politics, and strong athletes should compete and represent their country, they should not perform under a neutral flag.”

And in an open letter published before the Wada decision Alisher Usmanov, the billionaire former head of Russia’s fencing federation, who is now president of the International Fencing Federation, said the fight against doping risked being turned into “lynching”.

But the decision also prompted some athletes to speak out against Russian sporting officials who, they believed, had not done enough to reform Russian sport despite repeated warnings.

“I didn’t doubt that it could end up like this,” said Mariya Lasitskene, a world champion high jumper who has been outspoken on doping issues. She missed the 2016 Olympics because of sanctions imposed on Russia’s track-and-field team. “I didn’t believe the stories about how everything was going to be OK. What’s happened today is a shame.” But

In an online post, she said she would continue to try to compete and criticised Russian sporting officials for defending athletes “in words only,” leaving athletes “alone in this fight.”

Alexander Tikhonov, a retired Olympic biathlon skier and former federation head, said: “We got what we deserved, in remarks reported by the website Sport24.ru. “I said immediately that I’m on the side of Wada.”