Maria Zakharova
© Dmitry Serebryakov/TASS
The International Paralympic Committee's (IPC) decision to ban Russian Para athletes from the forthcoming Paralympic Games is overwhelmingly filthy and inhumane, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday. "Paralympians are not disables persons who do sport out of despair. Paralympians are athletes who have proved that there is no such thing as despair," she noted.

"The decision to bar the entire Russian Paralympic team from the Paralympic Games is strikingly filthy and inhumane," she wrote on her Facebook account. "It is a betrayal of those high human rights standards the modern world is resting on."

The IPC ruled on Sunday to suspend RPC's (Russian Paralympic Committee) membership and bar the Russian team from the Paralympic Games in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro. Russian Minister of Sport Vitaly Mutko told TASS Russia will challenge this decision with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The WADA Independent Commission chaired by Canadian law professor Richard McLaren released a report on July 18 on the results of its probe into the accusations of doping and manipulation of tests by Russian athletes and officials at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games.

The report claimed that the commission found evidence that Russia's Sports Ministry and the Center for the Training of Russian National Teams and the Federal Security Service had covered up the doping program in Russian sports.

A total of 35 Russian Paralympians were mentioned in the report of McLaren.

Following the report, WADA recommended the International Olympic Committee, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and all international sports federations to ban Russian athletes from all international sports competitions. The IPC opened a case against the RPC on July 22.

The Paralympic Games are scheduled to be held in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro from September 7 through September 18.