Kremlin vows to suspend officials named in doping report

The Kremlin said it will suspend Russian officials named in a report for the World Anti-Doping Agency that revealed today state-run doping at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and other major sports.

WADA consequently called for all Russian competitors and officials to be banned from the Rio Olympics next month after the investigation by Canadian lawyer Richard McLaren.

The report said the sports ministry in Moscow under Vitaly Mutko organised a subterfuge under which tainted urine samples were replaced and kept away from international observers.

His deputy Yury Nagornykh was also mentioned in the report.

"The officials named in the commission's report as acting directly will be temporarily suspended from their posts until the investigation is fully completed," the Kremlin said in a statement.

But it did not hide its disdain for the findings or the Russian former doping official whose allegations sparked the probe.

"(To) take a final decision on the responsibility of the relevant officials," the Russian government needs WADA to provide "more complete, objective and fact-based information," the Kremlin said.

Stressing that "doping has no place in sport," it said that the report's findings "are based on the testimony of one person. A person with a scandalous reputation," referring to Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of Moscow's anti-doping laboratory.

Rodchenkov revealed details of the complex system to evade anti-doping controls used in Sochi after fleeing to the United States.

He is now under criminal investigation in Russia and his sister was convicted of supplying anabolic steroids, the Kremlin said.

"The question arises: can conclusions based exclusively on the testimony of people of this sort be trustworthy and weighty?" it asked.