Russia could miss the Rio Paralympics after the International Paralympic Committee announced it had opened suspension proceedings following the publication of the McLaren Report.

The IPC announced on Friday it would seek to ban Russia from the Rio Games, which take place from September 7th to 18th.

The move came after the publication of Richard McLaren’s investigation into rampant Russian cheating.

The IPC will make a decision on whether or not Russia will be suspended in the week beginning August 1st. The Olympic Games open on August 5th.

Should a ban be imposed, Russia’s National Paralympic Committee (NPC Russia) would have 21 days to lodge an appeal, the IPC said.

A statement from the IPC read: “After fully evaluating Richard McLaren’s ‘Independent Person Report’, together with additional data provided to the IPC by the report’s author, the IPC governing board on Friday (July 22) ratified a decision to open suspension proceedings against NPC Russia in light of its apparent inability to fulfil its IPC membership responsibilities and obligations.

“In particular, in light of the prevailing doping culture endemic within Russian sport, at the very highest levels, NPC Russia appears unable or unwilling to ensure compliance with and the enforcement of the IPC’s Anti-Doping Code within its own national jurisdiction.

“The IPC considers this vital to ensuring athletes are able to compete on a level playing field.

“The suspension of NPC Russia will now be considered in accordance with the IPC suspension policy.

“That process will include, amongst other things, appropriate dialogue with NPC Russia in order to afford them due process and to allow them to present their case.”

The news came on the day the International Olympic Committee announced a further 45 athletes had tested positive after a second set of samples provided at the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Games were reanalysed.

The number of additional positive tests — comprising 30 athletes from Beijing and 15 from London — takes the total number of athletes who have failed doping tests during the period of reanalysis so far to 98.

The IOC said 23 of the 30 positive tests taken from the Beijing samples involved medallists. The 15 positives from London covered athletes from nine countries and two sports.

IOC president Thomas Bach said: “The new reanalysis once again shows the commitment of the IOC in the fight against doping.”

The IOC’s announcement follows the decision by the Court of Arbitration for Sport earlier this week to uphold the decision of athletics’ world governing body the IAAF to ban Russian athletes from the Rio Olympics due to widespread doping violations.

And it also comes after an independent commission report earlier this week which alleged state-sponsored doping by Russia centred around the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

The IOC is currently under pressure to extend the IAAF’s ban on Russian competitors in Rio to all sports, but is yet to deliver its verdict. The IOC’s executive board is due to convene again on Sunday.

The nationalities of the athletes involved in the 45 new cases are yet to be revealed, with the IOC currently undertaking the process of informing their respective international associations.

And there is set to be more bad news on the way with more samples from Beijing and London — specifically aimed at medal winners — set be be conducted throughout and beyond the Rio Games.

The IPC said it had acted after McLaren provided the names of the athletes associated with the 35 “disappearing positive samples” from the Moscow laboratory highlighted in the report.

Nineteen samples potentially doctored as part of the sample swapping regime during the 2014 Sochi Paralympic Winter Games have been sent for further analysis.

IPC president Sir Philip Craven thanked McLaren for his cooperation in uncovering the “unimaginable scale of institutionalised doping in Russian sport”.

Russia, with places for 267 athletes across 18 sports, has the third largest delegation for the Rio Paralympics, behind China and Brazil.

Craven said: “This decision was not taken lightly, but after fully evaluating the ‘Independent Person Report’ and the additional information we have received, the IPC believes that the current environment in Russian sport — which stems from the highest levels — is such that NPC Russia appears unable to fulfil its IPC membership obligations in full.

“Before making a decision, NPC Russia will have an opportunity to present its case to the IPC.

“In addition, the IPC is continuing to explore a host of other measures and actions in order to take the strongest possible steps to protect the integrity of Paralympic sport.”

The IOC also announced on Friday that Turkish weightlifter Sibel Ozkan has been stripped of the silver medal he won at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 after reanalysis of his samples detected “the presence of the metabolites of the prohibited substance stanozolol”.