Vladimir Lukin has been the President of the RPC since 1997, with some of those early administrators still involved today.

First vice-president of the RPC, Pavel Rozhkov, joined the organisation in 2004.

In their celebration message, the RPC mentioned some of the top Russian Paralympic athletes who have won titles at the highest level of Para-sport.

These included 13-time Paralympic athletics champion Rima Batalova, cross-country skier Valery Kupchinsky, swimmer Oksana Savchenko and the national cerebral palsy football team.

Anna Milenina, Roman Petushkov, Sergey Shilov and Mikhalina Lysova were other cross-country skiers given mentions.

Coaches including Petr Builov in athletics, Irina Gromova in cross-country skiing and Igor Tveryakov in swimming were also praised for helping build the Paralympic Movement in Russia.

Russia made their Paralympic debut at Atlanta 1996, following on from years as the Soviet Union and as the Unified Team at the Barcelona 1992 Games, following the dissolution of the USSR.

Since then, Russia has won 91 gold medals at the Summer Paralympics and 84 gold medals at the Winter Paralympics, enjoying their most successful Games at London 2012 and Sochi 2014.

The RPC was banned from competing at the Rio 2016 and Pyeongchang 2018 Paralympics by the International Paralympic Committee.

Russian athletes were forced to compete under a neutral banner at Pyeongchang 2018.

The World Anti-Doping Agency imposed a four-year package of sanctions on Russia in 2019, including a ban on the Russian flag at the Olympics and Paralympics.

The period where the punishments apply was later reduced to two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) last month.

Russian athletes are set to compete under a neutral flag at the Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 Olympics and Paralympics, where their national anthem will also be banned.

The CAS also scrapped a ban on RPC officials including Lukin from attending the Games.