The long-running Russian doping scandal and the country's institutionalized cheating is expected to cloud the World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) fifth world conference in Katowice, Poland, on November 5-7.
Formally, this year's meeting is supposed elect a new president and adopt a new anti-doping code.
However, proceedings will likely be dominated by Russian state-sponsored doping even though new sanctions for Russia aren't on the agenda of WADA's executive committee, AFP reported.
Ahead of the conference, WADA's first president, Dick Pound, called for harsher treatment of athletes and countries who are found guilty of doping.
'Many sports now know that someone is looking over their shoulder,' the 77-year-old Canadian told AFP.
WADA has documented more than 1,000 Russian doping cases across dozens of sports, most notably at the Winter Olympics that Russia hosted in Sochi in 2014.
The country was found guilty of state-backed cheating between 2011 and 2015.
Russia's anti-doping agency, RUSADA, was also suspended in 2015.
New revelations appeared in September when electronic data from the former Moscow laboratory was suspected of having been manipulated when it was handed to WADA investigators earlier in the year.
Consequently, Russia could face a ban from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The latest allegations are still being investigated.
At the conference, Polish Sports Minister Witold Banka is expected to be confirmed as the successor to the current WADA head, Craig Reedie of Britain.
Russia's Athletics Federation has been banned form international competition since 2015.
Based on reporting by ESPN, dpa, and AFP
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