The ARD broadcast, “Secret Doping: Showdown for Russia”, when translated into English, also showed footage of what it said were two Russian coaches still training top Russian athletes although both were banned because of past doping offences.
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said all doping allegations had to be supported with evidence and unfounded accusations would be treated as “absolute slander”.
It will reportedly also show video footage of banned coaches working with elite athletes in Russian Federation.
Russia, whose own athletics federation was suspended previous year by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), is now trying to prove it has rid itself of doping cheats so it can send its athletics to Rio in August.
An independent commission established by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) recommended Russia be banned from global athletics after an investigation into claims made in the ARD documentary “Top Secret Doping: How Russia makes its winners” last November.
The investigation by public broadcaster ARD also points directly at Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko for his alleged involvement in the cover-up.
“The WADA investigative commission’s chairman, Dick Pound, said at a press conference at the time that it would be “impossible” for Mutko not to have known about Russia’s doping program”.
ARD’s December 2014 documentary Secret Doping Dossier: How Russia Produces Its Winners had first brought Russia’s doping scandal to light.
Then in May, the New York Times published a report claiming various Russian athletes used doping during the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi under a government-sponsored scheme involving Russian special services, which Russian officials have denied. “This huge interest in Russian sport by ARD and other publications has already gone on for a year and a half”.
The investigation procedures will be conducted in Russian Federation, according to Vladimir Markin, head of the press service of Russia’s Investigative Committee. It uncovered evidence of widespread doping and corruption in Russian sports.
The fourth edition of the explosive series produced by produced by Hajo Seppelt, Florian Riese Wieck and Felix Becker, the first programme of which proved the catalyst in the doping scandal now engulfing the nation, alleges Mutko covered up a doping offence made by a footballer who plays for FC Krasnodar.
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The Russian Sports Ministry was ordered to reform its structure involved in doping offenses and to root out the cheats.
