On July 30, the World Athletics Council recommended to the organisation's Congress to exclude RusAF from membership of the organisation if Russia does not pay a fine of $6.31 million (£4.83 million/€5.35 million) by August 15. 

RusAF only avoided expulsion from World Athletics after Oleg Matytsin, the country's Sports Minister, made a last minute unconditional offer to pay the fine by August 15.

A meeting of the Recovery Commission was held yesterday, where a draft plan for the restoration of RusAF was discussed.

The draft document is set to be finalised and discussed further, ahead of likely approval at a meeting next Friday (August 14) - a day before the deadline for Russia to pay the fine, which forms part of the reinstatement criteria for RusAF following an investigation into world indoor high jump champion Danil Lysenko.

A group of seven RusAF officials were charged by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) with obstructing an anti-doping investigation by forging documents to explain Lysenko's missed tests.

"We understand that all interested parties, and most importantly, our athletes, whose neutral status directly depends on the date of agreement of this document with World Athletics, expect us to be prompt in this matter," RusAF vice-president Alexei Plotnikov told Russia's official state news agency TASS.

"We must take into account the comments of all parties represented in the commission, and it is important for us to hear the voices of not only the great professionals of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA), which are in the commission, but also reflect the expectations of our athletes in the document.

"The plan is, of course, based on the recommendations that were given at the World Athletics Council meeting on March 12.

"Most of them are related to anti-doping work and those actions that will accelerate the recovery of RusAF and enable our athletes to compete in international competitions and give a new impetus to the development of the federation itself."

A preliminary plan for the restoration of RusAF must be provided by the end of the month.

The wishes of the World Athletics working group led by Rune Andersen must be considered and included in the plan by September 30.

A final version of the recovery plan must be submitted by this date, when a World Athletics Council meeting is scheduled to take place.

World Athletics has announced that it intends to appoint two independent experts to the Recovery Commission in the next fortnight, as reported by TASS.

The Commission is chaired by Plotnikov, with its other members being RusAF legal adviser Irina Lyuboserdova Russian Anti-Doping Agency director general Yuri Ganus, whose position is in jeopardy following a recommendation from the Supervisory Board, and its deputy director general Margarita Pakhnotskaya. 

It also includes Deputy Sports Minister Odes Baysultanov, Andrey Konokotin of the ROC, head of the sector for interaction with All-Russian Sports Federations Valery Kuvaev and multiple winner of the junior national Championships Jennifer Akinimika 

International Olympic Committee member Yelena Isinbayeva and Maria Aglitskaya, a hurdler representing the RusAF Athletes' Commission, are the other members.

Three-time world high jump champion Mariya Lasitskene questioned the timing of work on the roadmap, accusing RusAF of time wasting  and warned the lack of progress made a "mockery of athletes".

"The statement of the head of the RusAF Commission that the creation of a roadmap is important not only for efficiency, but also that this document is as integral, verified, professional as possible, that it is important to reflect the expectations of athletes in it, looks incredibly ridiculous, nothing more than an attempt to flirt with the athletics community," Lasitskene told TASS.

"The need to create a roadmap was announced at the March meeting of the World Athletics Council, but over the past five months, neither RusAF nor the commission itself have done anything in this direction.

"Wasting time, given that the international season has already begun, is just another mockery of the athletes by those who are supposed to protect them in their work."