Taylor’s committee will convene, probably by phone, on Oct. 23 to decide whether to recommend to WADA’s executive board that Russia be designated “noncompliant.” If the board agrees, a case most likely will be fast-tracked to the Court of Arbitration for Sport for a final ruling.

While individual sports, in the past, had it within their power to decide whether to sanction Russia, new rules adopted in April 2018 mean a negative ruling for Russia at CAS could trigger an automatic suspension for Russia. Under such a ban, Russian teams and athletes would be ineligible to compete in international sporting events, and the country would not be allowed to host them, until the WADA suspension is lifted.

That could lead to Russia’s team missing out on the Olympics in Tokyo, and even put at risk its national soccer team’s participation in qualification matches for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

“The situation is very serious,” the president of the Russian Olympic Committee, Stanislav Pozdnyakov, said in a statement, The Associated Press reported. “The Russian Olympic team’s prospects of taking part in the Games in Tokyo next year could be under threat.”

Ganus, the chief executive of Russia’s antidoping agency, known by its acronym Rusada, acknowledged in an interview with The New York Times last week that he could not rule out the possibility that the Russian data had been manipulated before its transfer to WADA.

“I want to hope for the best, but I live in a country where we have to be ready for all possible situations,” he said.

WADA said in a statement Monday that it had sent Rusada and the Russian Ministry of Sport copies of reports prepared by independent forensic experts “that detail the inconsistencies in question.” Russian authorities, WADA said, “have been given three weeks to provide their comments, together with answers to a list of specific questions.”