Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) President Stanislav Pozdnyakov claimed that the Briton had targeted his country since taking over as head of the world governing body in 2015. 

"I believe that Mr. Coe has been pursuing a consistent Russophobic policy since the time he was first elected President of World Athletics," Pozdnyakov told Russia’s official news agency TASS.

"Nothing changes in his behaviour, only motives, factors with which he tries to cover up the Russophobia that he demonstrates."

Russia was banned by World Athletics in November 2015, shortly after Coe was elected to replace Lamine Diack as President, following evidence of state-sponsored doping, including at the 2012 Olympics in London and the 2013 World Championships in Moscow.

The suspension was finally lifted in March, but Coe immediately announced that they are "still excluded for the foreseeable future due to the invasion of Ukraine."

It means that Russia will be missing for the fourth consecutive World Athletics Championships when they start here in Hungary's capital tomorrow.

Coe has resisted the International Olympic Committee’s recommendations for Russian and Belarusian athletes to return to competitions as individual neutrals under certain conditions, insisting he is "not a neutral" in the war in Ukraine.

He admitted yesterday following his re-election for a third and final term that the prospect of either country returning in athletics before Paris 2024 was "unlikely".

“Of course, such behaviour is not inherent in the Olympic family in which the ideals have always been friendship, mutual respect, striving for excellence.” Pozdnyakov told TASS.

“Apparently, Mr. Coe forgot about these ideals.”

Pozdnyakov has encouraged Russian athletes to fight in the war against Ukraine and earlier this week was awarded the state honour Order of Alexander Nevsky by President Vladimir Putin.

Russia’s former Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov claimed he was not surprised that Britain’s double Olympic 1500 metres champion was opposed to the ban being lifted.

"I had a long history of relationships with Coe, from which I concluded that he was not an independent person, and all the agreements that we had with him were never fulfilled by World Athletics," Kolobkov told TASS.

Kolobkov, Sports Minister between 2016 and 2020, claimed that Russia had fulfilled the criteria to have its suspension for doping lifted several years ago.

"I fulfilled all my obligations to this organisation a long time ago, but the return of our athletes to the international arena was repeatedly postponed under various unreasonable pretexts," he told TASS.

“It is obvious that World Athletics was guided by biased circumstances and far-fetched requirements.

"Representatives of World Athletics, who worked in our country, stated that we had fulfilled all the requirements.

"The question is brewing - why did all this happen at all?

"We have always built partnerships, but we have not seen any response from that side.

"Therefore, there are no hopes for positive for I didn’t feed the movement from World Athletics to Russia.

"It was high time to conclude that they are neither partners nor friends to us."

The state-coordinated attack on Coe also included a contribution from Svetlana Zhurova, the Olympic speed skating gold medallist, who is now a member of the country’s Duma.

She drew parallels with how Coe competed at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow when Britain defied calls from its Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to join the United States-led boycott over the Soviet Union invasion of Afghanistan, and won a gold medal in the 1500m.

"Coe expressed his opinion," Zhurova told TASS.

"This is not a collectively defined and officially announced decision, this is the opinion of a Russophobe.

"But I remind you that it was this Russophobe who won a medal at the 1980 Olympics. 

"Wasn't he once condemned by Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister for this?

"He lived through it all, but the British, apparently, have a very short memory.

"We welcomed him with open arms, created all the conditions for him so that he could win an Olympic medal in the competition.

"Everything that is happening today proves once again that there is no need to have illusions about the West."