The International Paralympic Committee will conditionally lift its suspension on Russia's Paralympic Committee by March 15, it announced Friday.
In November 2016, the IPC presented the RPC with 70 conditions to meet in order to be reinstated, but on Friday, the IPC said it was time to move forward with the Russians having met 69 of those 70.
The final un-met requirement is acceptance of the World Anti-Doping Agency's McLaren Report, outlining Russia's state-sponsored doping programs.
The IPC said it does not expect that will change anytime soon. That being said, the IPC recognized that the actual work done by the Russians to restore the integrity of their program merited reinstatement.
"Maintaining the RPC's suspension on the grounds of Russia's continuing refusal to not accept the McLaren Report does not seem right," IPC President Andrew Parsons said. "We need to move things forward and find a solution that protects the integrity of Para sport, acknowledges the significant reforms made by the RPC, and enables the RPC to comply with its membership obligations."
The RPC's suspension will be lifted in March, but Russian para athletes will only be able to participate in the 2020 and 2022 Paralympics provided they pass strict testing requirements that the RPC will need to pay for.
"If Russia will not accept the findings of the McLaren Report then we can only lift the suspension under strict conditions," Parsons said.
"If at any stage any of the post-reinstatement criteria are not met, the IPC Governing Board may reconsider the status of the RPC's conditional reinstatement and may, among other things, immediately revoke such conditional reinstatement, on such terms as it sees fit."
The IPC did not allow Russian athletes to compete at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games. At last year's Pyeongchang Games, those who had met strict conditions were approved to participate as Neutral Paralympic Athletes.
