The RPC has officially filed an appeal to the CAS against their ban from Rio 2016 ©Getty Images

The Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) has officially launched an appeal against their ban from Rio 2016 to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and it will be heard on August 21, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) announced today.

A final decision on whether or not they will be cleared to compete at the Games in the Brazilian city, due to run from September 7 to 18, will then be announced by CAS by midnight CEST on August 22, the IPC confirmed.

The appeal will be heard by the CAS ad-hoc division in Rio.

The IPC opted to impose a blanket ban on the nation on August 7 following the release of the McLaren Report, which alleged the presence of a state-sponsored doping scheme in the country.

The Canadian lawyer revealed what he described as the "disappearing positive methodology" - where positive samples were switched for clean ones - in the explosive report.

A total of 35 "disappearing positives" were found in Paralympic sport, according to the report, although only 21 of these were within the IPC remit.

But since then, another 10 such cases have been brought to the attention of the governing body.

IPC President Sir Philip Craven described the the anti-doping system in Russia as broken when banning the country from Rio 2016 ©Getty Images
IPC President Sir Philip Craven described the the anti-doping system in Russia as broken when banning the country from Rio 2016 ©Getty Images

IPC President Sir Philip Craven described the the anti-doping system in Russia as "broken, corrupted and entirely compromised", while accusing the Russian Government of "catastrophically failing" its Para-athletes.

The Briton also said the "medals over morals" attitude in the country "disgusts" me.

The IPC position - arrived at by a unanimous vote of its Board - contrasted starkly with that taken by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), of which Sir Philip is a member, as they opted to defer the decision over the extent of the participation of Russian athletes at the Rio 2016 Olympics to the International Federations (IFs)

Their choice to impose a ban on the RPC, which came after suspension proceedings were opened in July, has been criticised by a number of organisations, such as the Association of National Olympic Committees, and IFs.

The differing stances of the IPC and IOC seems to have elevated tensions between the two governing bodies ahead of September's Paralympics, which remain under threat due to the dire economic problems in the city.

Vladimir Lukin, President of the RPC, wrote to IOC counterpart Thomas Bach earlier this month in a bid to help get the ban overturned.