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The Russian Sports Ministry said on Tuesday it was open for closer cooperation with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in order to eliminate any irregularities committed by the Russian anti-doping watchdog and its accredited laboratory.
- WADA calls for ban on Russia for state-sponsored doping
- Key points from WADA's damning report against Russian athletics
- Kremlin terms doping allegations against Russian athletes 'groundless'
On Monday an anti-doping commission report alleged widespread corruption in Russia, triggering one of the biggest doping scandals in sporting history.
The ministry also said Russia's anti-doping policy had strictly complied with WADA norms.
WADA has recommended that Russian athletes are excluded from international events including the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil.
"Russia has been and will be fully committed to the fight against doping in sport," the ministry said in a statement.
The commission said that at one point the laboratory in Moscow accredited by WADA destroyed 1,417 samples shortly before an inspection.
Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said there was no evidence for the accusations against the Russian Athletics Federation, and that the samples had been destroyed at WADA's request.
The ministry also said Russia's anti-doping policy has been in full compliance with "strict recommendations" from WADA and the International Olympic Committee, and that independent international observers had been engaged during big sporting events in Russia to oversee anti-doping procedures.
Shuttered Moscow lab at centre of doping scandal agrees to share samples
The director of a Moscow laboratory at the centre of an anti-doping scandal said on Tuesday it was ready to hand over all its samples so they could be tested elsewhere, the TASS news agency reported.
"All the samples we have will be handed over to other laboratories to be tested again," Grigory Rodchenkov, the anti-doping lab's director, was quoted as saying. He said he did not know which laboratories would carry out the repeat testing.
Rodchenkov was speaking after his lab stopped operating after its accreditation was suspended by the World Anti-Doping Agency amid a burgeoning doping scandal.
Earlier, the lab used for doping tests had stopped operating after its accreditation was suspended by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the head of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency, Nikita Kamaev, said on Tuesday.
Kamaev, responding to allegations of widespread doping among Russian athletes, urged commentators to distinguish between the laboratory and Russia's anti-doping agency, which he said was acting "in full compliance with the demands of the WADA codex".
His comments are the latest in a string of defensive remarks by Russian officials, following a hard-hitting report commissioned by WADA which alleged widespread doping by Russian athletes and official collusion in a cover-up.
