DECEMBER 2014

German broadcaster ARD broadcasts a documentary  by Hajo Seppelt, pictured, alleging systematic doping in Russian athletics. A week later, Russian Athletics President and treasurer of the International Association of Athletics Federations, Valentin Balakhnichev, and marketing consultant Pape Massata Diack, son of then-IAAF President Lamine Diack, step down. The World Anti-Doping Agency sets up an Independent Commission headed by its former chief, Richard Pound, to investigate the claims.

AUGUST 2015

ARD airs a second documentary by Seppelt with new accusations based on a leaked IAAF database with details of 12,000 blood tests from 5,000 competitors from around the world which revealed "extraordinary" levels of doping.

NOVEMBER 2015

WADA's report calls on Russia's athletics team to be banned from international competition until "state-sponsored" doping is eradicated. The IAAF suspends the Russian athletics team. WADA also suspends Russia's national anti-doping body, RUSADA, over non-compliance.

JANUARY 2016

WADA's second report into doping and corruption is published. It claims high-ranking IAAF officials must have known about the wide scope of doping.

MAY 2016

Former head of Moscow's anti-doping laboratory, Grigory Rodchenkov, pictured, exiled in the United States, claims there was an organised doping campaign including at least 15 Olympic medallists from Sochi 2014, with the close involvement of the Sports Ministry and Russia's FSB security service.

JUNE 2016

The IAAF votes to extend the ban on the Russian Athletics Federation, but offers to let Russian athletes compete as neutrals at Rio 2016 providing they can prove they are clean and have operated outside their county's system. The only athlete allowed to compete is long jumper Darya Klishina. 

JULY 2016

Only two weeks before Rio 2016 is due to start, Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren releases a WADA-commissioned report alleging a sophisticated state-sponsored doping system that included London 2012, as well as Sochi 2014. The investigation finds the FSB helped "the state-dictated failsafe system" carried out by the Sports Ministry and involving 30 sports. There are calls for Russia to be banned from Rio 2016.

JULY 2016

The IOC rule any Russian wanting to compete at Rio 2016 will have to prove that he or she was not involved in doping.

AUGUST 2016

A total of  270 Russians compete at Rio 2016 are cleared to compete, with 111 excluded. Russia finish fourth overall in the medals table with a total of 56 medals, including 19 gold.

DECEMBER 2016

Second part of McLaren Report published, implicating 28 Russian athletes from Sochi 2014.

SEPTEMBER 2017

At the IOC's Session in Lima, 17 national anti-doping agencies, including the United States, France, Germany and Britain, demand Russia are banned from Pyeongchang 2018, claiming it is "one of the biggest doping scandals in sporting history".

OCTOBER 2017

President Vladimir Putin warns of Russian "humiliation" and serious harm to the Olympic Movement if the country is forced to compete under a neutral flag or excluded altogether.

NOVEMBER 2017

Alexander Legkov is among the first Russian athletes to be sanctioned and is stripped of the Olympic gold medal he won in the 50 kilometres cross-country at Sochi 2014 and is banned from the Games for life. A total of 25 Russians have so far been disqualified from Sochi 2014. Among those sanctioned is Alexander Zubkov, Russia's flag carrier at the Opening Ceremony, pictured below with Thomas Bach and Vladimir Putin, Presidents of the IOC and Russia, who is stripped of the two gold medals he won in the bobsleigh.

DECEMBER 2017

Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Vitaly Mutko, heavily implicated in the scandal during his time as Sports Minister, claims during a speech on the morning of the draw for the 2018 FIFA World Cup that the foreign media had been "distorting reality".