Russia should be suspended from athletics competition, a World Anti-Doping Agency commission report has recommended.
The independent commission examined allegations of doping, cover-ups and extortion in Russian athletics, which also implicated the governing IAAF.
It also wants five athletes and five coaches to get lifetime doping bans.
The report also identified “systemic failures” in the IAAF that prevent an “effective” anti-doping programme.
In addition, it stated that the London 2012 Olympics were “sabotaged” by the “widespread inaction” against Russian athletes with suspicious doping profiles by the IAAF and the Russian athletics federation.
Prior to the publication of the report, Lord Coe, the President of the International Association of Athletics Federations, said these were “dark days for the sport”.
In an interview with BBC Radio 5 live’s Sportsweek on Sunday, Coe added: “The day after I got elected, I started a massive review. Understandably, in the light of the allegations that have been made, that review has been accelerated.
“I’m more determined than ever to rebuild the trust in our sport. However, this is a long road to redemption.”
The report was commissioned on a “very narrow mandate” to “determine the accuracy” of allegations made in a German TV documentary about Russian athletics last December.
It claimed Russian athletes paid 5 per cent of their earnings to domestic doping officials to supply banned substances and cover up tests, while athletics’ world governing body the IAAF was implicated in covering up the abuse.
The programme’s claims of widespread doping were made by former Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) official Vitaly Stepanov and his wife Yulia (nee Rusanova), formerly an 800m runner who was banned for doping.
While former discus thrower Yevgeniya Pecherina said that “most, the majority, 99%” of athletes selected to represent Russia use banned substances.
Pecherina is currently serving a 10-year doping ban that is due to end in 2023.
Another banned athlete, Liliya Shobukhova, who won the London Marathon in 2010, said she paid the Russian Athletics Federation 450,000 euros (£350,000) to cover up a positive doping test.
The documentary also included an undercover video purporting to show 800m runner, Mariya Savinova, who won gold at the 2012 Olympics in London, admitting to using the banned steroid, oxandrolone.
The commission was not asked to examine separate doping claims made in August when The Sunday Times and a German broadcaster claimed leaked blood tests from 5,000 athletes over 11 years showed an “extraordinary extent of cheating”.
The IAAF said the claims were “sensationalist and infuriating”.
WADA is investigating these claims separately.