A decision was taken by the ISU Council at its meeting today in Budapest to prolong restrictions against Russia and Belarus after discussing the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) recommendations.

The IOC ruled in March that Russian and Belarusian competitiors should be allowed to return as individual neutral athletes provided they do not support the war in Ukraine and are not affiliated to the military.

International Federations have been divided in their response to the recommendations with several opting to maintain their bans.

After debating the subject over the past three days, the ISU has agreed to continue to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus.

"The ISU Council decided to explore the feasibility issues with regard to potential pathways to implement the IOC recommendations within ISU sports," a statement from the ISU read.

" The Council will continue to monitor the situation in Ukraine and its impact on the ISU activity as well as the decisions and their implementation within the Olympic Movement."

The ISU also "reiterated its sympathy for and solidarity to all affected by the war in Ukraine". 

"The ISU maintains its condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in the strongest possible terms," the worldwide governing body added.

Athletes from Russia, and its ally Belarus, were banned from ISU competitions in April last year due to the invasion of Ukraine.

At the ISU's Congress in June 2022, the ban was extended but officials from the two countries were still allowed to stand in elections after surviving a vote to exclude them from the event.

Russian Natalia Bestemyanova, an Olympic ice dance gold medallist at Calgary 1988, claimed she remained hopeful that the ISU would lift the ban due to the financial impact.

"It was clear that the ISU was losing money, just today they published a report," Bestemyanova told Russia's official state news agency TASS.

"Without us, the competitions became less interesting, especially for women and in pairs. 

"I hope that the situation that has developed for the ISU will affect the decision on the admission of our athletes, and they will be returned to international competitions. 

"We are all waiting for this."

Tatiana Navka, the 2006 Olympic ice dance gold medallist and now married to Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin's spokesman, condemned the decision.

"Stupidity and injustice," she told Sport-Express. 

"Once again they show that people use sports to achieve some of their goals. 

"They hoped that reason would prevail. 

"But, apparently, no."

But Alexander Kogan, director general of the Russian Figure Skating Federation, seemed to be expecting the decision.

"This ISU decision means that our athletes - both seniors and juniors - cannot compete," he told TASS.

"Although there was a tiny bit of hope, this decision did not surprise us. 

"We will play the season in accordance with our plans," 

Russia was due to stage the European Championships in both speed skating and short track speed skating in 2024 only for the event to be postponed by the ISU.

Kolomna, near Moscow, had been scheduled to hold the speed skating event from January 5 to 7 in 2024 before Sochi was set to hold the short track tournament from January 12 to 14.

Russia and Belarus remain banned from staging the ISU events.