The Russian Athletics Federation (RUSAF) has missed a deadline to pay half of a $10 million (€8.86m) fine to World Athletics for anti-doping breaches.
RUSAF has claimed that it could not source the funds to pay the $5 million by the 1 July deadline which now jeopardises the chances of Russian athletes to compete as neutrals in international competition.
A vetting process was put in place by World Athletics to allow athletes from Russia to compete internationally under a neutral flag, having proved that they train in a doping-free environment.
That was with a view to allowing ten Russian track and field athletes compete at the Tokyo Olympics which have been postponed for 12 months.
In March, World Athletics warned that the vetting process would be suspended again if half of the fine was not paid by the deadline.
The process was already halted last November when World Athletics said that RUSAF had obstructed ongoing anti-doping investigations.
"RUSAF does not have the money to pay the fines imposed by World Athletics. Our appeals, which were sent to World Athletics, remained unanswered unfortunately," the federation’s president Yevgeny Yurchenko told TASS news agency.
"This is why we are addressing our appeal today not only to the chief of World Athletics, Sebastian Coe, but to the World Athletics Council as well, in our open letter on behalf of all RusAF presidium’ members."
RUSAF was originally banned in 2015 for repeated doping offences and Russian athletes missed competing in the 2016 Olympic Games.
Then last December Russia was banned from competing at major international sporting events for four years by the World Anti-Doping Agency for altering data linked to positive doping tests.
That ban is being appealed and the case will be heard by the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in November.
