The Russian Grand Prix won't be impacted by sporting sanctions imposed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), according to event organisers.
Russia was handed a four-year ban from all major sporting events by WADA on Monday for breaching doping regulations.
The ban includes Russian athletes taking part in and the country hosting "major events", such as the Olympics and World Cup, with Formula 1's governing body, the FIA, falling under WADA's definition of a 'Major Event Organisation'.
But some events are exempt if they have already been agreed, whereby contracts are in place and cancelling them would be difficult or assigning the event to another country would be "legally or practically impossible to do so".
The Rosgonki company that organises the race issued a statement confirming their belief that the race would go unaffected.
"The contract for the Russian round of the Formula 1 World Championship was signed back in 2010, long before the circumstances being investigated by WADA. It is valid until 2025, and the Russian round is included in the FIA international sports calendar for 2020.
"If, after an appeal, the WADA wording on the cancellation of a major event, provided that it is legally and practically possible, remains the same and refers to the Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix, there is no legal and technical possibility to withdraw and reassign the Russian Formula 1 Grand Prix to another country.
"We are confident that the Russian Grand Prix will take place in 2020 and subsequent years. We invite everyone to Sochi and ticket sales are in full swing."
Russia has 21 days to appeal against the ban, which if it does, it means the matter will then go to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
