Moscow, Dec 20 (IANS): The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (Rusada) announced on Thursday that it has planned to appeal a four-year doping ban from international sports competitions.

Rusada rejected the decision by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and recommended filing an arbitration case with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Alexandr Ivlev, head of the Rusada supervisory board, told local press: "We have made the decision not to accept the decision."

Ivlev said the supervisory board will send the corresponding recommendation to another panel of Russian sports figures for approval, reported Efe news.

A letter will then be prepared on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who described the sanctions as "unfair" at his annual press conference on Thursday.

Ivlev said: "We will do this within 10-15 days. Then the ball will be in the field of WADA and we will address that matter in the legal field."

He said the Russian argument is "quite solid" but refused to speculate on the options for the CAS to rule in Moscow's favour. When announcing the sanctions, WADA gave Rusada 21 days to accept or reject its ruling and appeal to the CAS.

Ivlev said: "Collective punishment is inadmissible for clean athletes. We are in constant dialogue with the main sports organisations. We have discrepancies on strategies, but Russia is still part of the global sports culture."

Putin said on Thursday during his annual press conference that WADA's decision was not one of either "common sense" or "international law".