Russia revealed Wednesday that it may miss the 2016 Olympic basketball event after FIBA banned its national basketball teams from all competitions, according to the TASS news agency.

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The decision to ban was relayed by Horacio Muratore, the president of FIBA, the sport's ruling body, through a letter to the Russian Basketball Federation.

The letter also stated that Russia's FIBA membership is temporarily suspended.

Russian basketball federation's honourary president, Sergei Chernov, said the suspension was due to RBF's inability to resolve longstanding institutional and legal issues that kept it from maintaining full control and governance of the sport in the country.

This was highlighted by a recently published Court decision against the federation.

A dispute between the previous federation head and the new president Yulia Anikeyeva created the rift within the federation.

Moscow's regional courts have ordered the federation to conduct hold fresh elections for president and executive board within 60 days.

These are scheduled on August 25 with ex- NBA player Andrei Kirilenko among the candidates.

Muratore invited Anikeyeva to the FIBA conference on August 8-9 to update them of the situation, which brought hope that the ban would be lifted.

The FIBA will be announce its final verdict at its conference.

Reuters reported that Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said he will personally neet with FIBA officers, and if necessary, will contest the suspension at the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne.

He added that FIBA can't deal with Russia in the manner they did.  

Nonetheless, it doesn't detract from the fact that the Russian national men's squad is under threat of missing the European championships in September, which is the Olympic qualifier, the website Stuff noted.

The most successful country in the European championships is Russia's predecessor, the Soviet Union, which captured 14 titles.  

The Soviet Union won Olympic golds in 1972 and 1988, on top of four silvers and three bronzes.

The present-day Russia, meanwhile, has won the European championship once in 2007 and has an Olympic bronze medal in 2012 to speak for.  

Chernov said that they--the RFB, the sports ministry, the Russian Olympic Committee--need to think together to figure out a solution. find a way out of this situation.

TagsRussian national basketball team, Russian Basketball Federation, 2016 Olympics