The IESF has allowed Russian and Belarusian players to compete as neutrals since the invasion of Ukraine last year, but they are not competing at the World Championships in the Romanian city of Iași due to safety concerns.

A motion to lift a ban on Russia's name, flag and symbols was narrowly defeat by 21 votes to 19 at last year's IESF Ordinary General Meeting in Bali.

However, the RESF reported this year's Ordinary General Meeting had voted by 32 to 13, with 25 abstentions, to remove the sanctions.

The International Olympic Committee has advised a continued ban on Russian and Belarusian national symbols even after controversially easing a recommended outright ban on both countries' athletes.

Only the now-banished International Boxing Association among Olympic International Federations has allowed Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under their own flags since the start of the war in Ukraine, although an increasing number have permitted them to return as neutrals.

According to the RESF, a proposal for its suspension from the Ukrainian Esports Federation (UESF) was also rejected at the Ordinary General Meeting.

UESF executive director Anton Markelov has condemned the decisions, and vowed to take legal action to overturn the outcome.

"We're shocked," he reportedly commented on Telegram.

"Everything should be different.

"We made speeches, we negotiated with almost every country about our position, everyone expressed support, but it turned out to be only in words.

"We put up our candidate to the IESF Board, but after this situation we decided to withdraw it, because we do not want to be involved in the management of this.

"We will block all IESF Championships until they change their decision.

"Our national teams that are currently competing in the Romanian Championships will be encouraged to do so as well, but we cannot force them to do so."

RESF President Dmitry Smith welcomed the Ordinary General Meeting's decision.

"Certainly, this is great news," he said.

"In our understanding, sport should unite, and any form of discrimination against athletes based on nationality and any other grounds is unacceptable. 

"Therefore, we are glad that we were able to achieve the cancellation of the previous decision, and our team will finally compete under its own flag."

IESF President Vlad Marinescu, who is also International Judo Federation director general, told insidethegames: "In all six disciplines, there is no team from Russia or Belarus competing, nor will there be.

"We had our OGM yesterday where 110 countries participated.

"Forty-four motions were voted on.

"Elections were held for Board position as well.

"The minutes of the meeting and action plan will be prepared."

The IESF World Championships began on Friday (August 25) with an Opening Ceremony at the Palace of Culture in Iași and are due to run until September 4.

Titles on the World Championships programme are CS: GO, Tekken 7, PUBG Mobile, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Dota 2 and eFootball.