It was deemed that they had breached the the Olympic Charter by recognising regional Olympic Councils in the Luhansk People's Republic, Donetsk People's Republic, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

"The unilateral decision taken by the Russian Olympic Committee on 5 October 2023 to include, as its members, the regional sports organisations which are under the authority of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Ukraine (namely Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia) constitutes a breach of the Olympic Charter because it violates the territorial integrity of the NOC of Ukraine, as recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in accordance with the Olympic Charter," IOC spokesman Mark Adams said here.

"In view of the above, the IOC Executive Board today decided that:

"The Russian Olympic Committee is suspended with immediate effect until further notice.

"The suspension has the following consequences:

"The Russian Olympic Committee is no longer entitled to operate as a National Olympic Committee, as defined in the Olympic Charter, and cannot receive any funding from the Olympic Movement."

"The participation of Russian athletes as individual neutrals at the Paris 2024 Olympics remains uncertain, and the IOC insisted the ROC's suspension would not impact its decision.

"As stated in the IOC’s position and recommendations of 28 March 2023, which remain fully in place, the IOC reserves the right to decide about the participation of individual neutral athletes with a Russian passport in the Olympic Games Paris 2024 and the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 at the appropriate time," Adams added.

"The IOC EB also reserves the right to take any further decision or measure depending on the development of this situation."

There is still no timeline provided by the IOC on when the decision will be taken regarding Paris 2024, but Adams today said it would be "closer to the Games".

The ROC has been increasingly vociferous in its criticism of the IOC's stance in response to the war in Ukraine.

In March, the IOC lifted an outright ban on its and Belarus' athletes from international sport, allowing them to compete as individual neutrals where they did not support the war in Ukraine are not affiliated to the military.

This prompted a backlash from Ukraine and its allies, who argued there should be no place for Russia or Belarus while the war is ongoing.

ROC President Stanislav Pozdnyakov, who has previously claimed athletes should be honoured to fight in the war against Ukraine, branded the conditions a "farce" and discriminatory.

Adams insisted the suspension was solely related to the recognition of the entities from the illegally annexed territories.

"It is specifically about that," he said.

"Of course we're aware about the traffic and the messages, but I think the statement speaks for itself and makes it very clear that's why the decision was taken. 

"It was  a breach of the Olympic Charter."

The ROC accused the IOC of taking a political decision, and insisted it would not affect Russian athletes.

"Today the IOC made another counterproductive decision with obvious political motivations," it said.

"Thus securing de jure what was done de facto back in February 2022.

"This step does not affect Russian athletes, the vast majority of whom are still groundlessly excluded from international competitions, and their neutralisation status remains unchanged.

"ROC, as a participant in the international sports movement, reserves the right to protect its own interests, as well as the interests of athletes and organizations of a sovereign country, which we represent in good faith."

NOC of Ukraine President Vadym Gutzeit welcomed the IOC's decision, which came after he had raised the issue with the IOC last week.

"Just after my address to the IOC on October 6, the President of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach announced that the IOC began the procedure of the broken issue and considered it today at the Executive Committee meeting," he wrote on Facebook.

"Fighting on!"

Andriy Yermak, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, has also expressed appreciation for the decision.

"This is an important decision," he said on X, formerly Twitter.

"We have persuaded our partners that sports may never be beyond politics as a terrorist state commits the genocide in Ukraine and uses athletes for propaganda."

Until today, the ROC had avoided suspension after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year.

It was previously suspended in 2017 because of the state-sponsored doping scandal, before being lifted after the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

Russia's athletes were still required to compete under the ROC banner at Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 because of World Anti-Doping Agency sanctions.

The IOC has stressed Russian athletes should "in no way represent their state or any other organisation in their country".