World athletics governing body the IAAF is seeking "urgent clarification" from the Russian authorities over a report that a top coach is still working with the team despite several of his athletes being banned for doping.
The announcement was made after a two-day meeting of the IAAF Council that also decided to uphold the ban on the Russian Athletics Federation which has been in place since November 2015.
This was the 10th time that ban, which was imposed following a World Anti-Doping Agency-commissioned report into allegations of endemic doping in Russian athletics, has been extended.
The IAAF created a task force to oversee RusAF's road to reinstatement in 2016 and its chairman Rune Andersen told the council meeting that there are two key issues to resolve before the suspension can be lifted.
The first is that the Russians have not met the task force's costs, as was agreed in 2016, and the second is that the IAAF wants to wait to see if the Russians will comply with their commitment to provide all analytical data and stored samples needed to prosecute anti-doping cases against Russian athletes.
The latter is also a requirement of WADA's deal to reinstate the Russian Anti-Doping Agency last year, a move that prompted the International Paralympic Committee to drop its sanctions against Russia.
Unlike those two organisations, and the International Olympic Committee that lifted its brief suspension of the Russia Olympic Committee after the 2018 Winter Games, the IAAF is unwilling to accept a promise to comply with the terms of a reinstatement deal - it wants actual compliance first.
This means RusAF will have to act very quickly if it is to persuade the IAAF to lift the ban in time for the 2019 World Championships, which start in Doha, where the council has been meeting, on September 26.
If RusAF fails to respond to the IAAF's demands, Russian athletes will once again have to compete in Doha as neutrals.
And that timetable has become even more complicated following a report by German broadcaster ARD this weekend that the former head coach of the Russian team Valentin Maslakov is still coaching senior athletes.
Maslakov, 74, resigned four years ago, shortly after the Russian scandal first broke but he has never been personally implicated in the state-sponsored doping scheme.
That said, he coached Russia's successful 4x400 metres relay teams, as well as their individual 400 metres sprinters and hurdlers, and many of those athletes have now been banned for cheating.
According to ARD, two thirds of Russia's current coaches and support staff were working with the national team prior to 2014, when doping was rife.
In a statement, the IAAF said it "took note" of ARD's allegations, as this "runs counter to assurances the task force has previously received from RusAF that it is disassociating itself from the old regime".
It added: "The task force will be asking RusAF for urgent clarification."
