The World Anti-Doping Agency commission said the London Olympics were more or less sabotaged by allowing Russian athletes to compete when they should have been suspended for doping violations.
The commission, which was looking into widespread doping in Russian athletics, recommended lifetime bans for five Russian middle-distance runners and five Russian coaches and administrators.
They blamed what they called an inexplicable laissez-faire attitude toward anti-doping by the IAAF and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency.
WADA sent the recommendations for the lifetime suspensions to the IAAF in August and made them public today with release of a 350-page report detailing the allegations.
The gold and bronze-medal winners at 800 meters at the London Olympics are among the five Russian runners targeted for lifetime bans.
The commission, chaired by Dick Pound, recommended bans for Olympic champion Mariya Savinova-Farnosova and bronze medalist Ekaterina Poistogova.
Following on from the release of the report, Russia could be banned from next year's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
If Russia doesn't clean up, "the outcome may be that there are no Russian track and field athletes in Rio," Pound said.
But he also said there may still be time for Russia to avoid that, if it starts reforming immediately — work that will take at least "several months."
"I think they can do it, I hope they can," Pound said.