The global regulator of drugs in sports on Thursday voted to allow Russia to resume testing its athletes for performance-enhancing drugs, despite an outcry from athletes and watchdogs that Moscow has not done enough to clean up its record of corruption in competitions.

Russia, whose drug-testing agency has been banned for three years, will now be able to certify on its own that its athletes are not using illicit drugs, allowing them easier entry to a range of competitions. Russia will also be able to issue what are known as therapeutic use exemptions, which permit athletes to use certain prohibited drugs for medical reasons.

The executive board of the World Anti-Doping Agency made the move despite a series of independent investigations that found Russia had orchestrated a vast, state-sponsored doping scheme that tainted the Olympics and other major sports events.

It comes at a time of mounting skepticism about the fairness of international sports competitions as the use of performance-enhancing drugs remains pervasive. Athletes say they do not have faith that their competitors are not doping. They also say the governing bodies of their sports have failed to ensure the integrity of the competition, even at the highest-profile events, like the Olympics.