IMAGE: Athletes leave the Doping Control station after the Women's 4 x 6 km Relay during day 14 of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics at Laura Cross-country Ski & Biathlon Center in Sochi on February 21, 2014 (Image used for representational purposes). Photograph: Adam Pretty/Getty Images
Allegations by a former head of Russia's drug testing laboratory that dozens of Russian athletes used doping when they competed at the 2014 Sochi Olympics are "slander by a turncoat" and are absolutely groundless, the Kremlin said on Friday.
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Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with journalists the Kremlin supports comments by Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko that the allegations by Grigory Rodchenkov, the former laboratory head, are "nonsense".
Asked about prospects of Russian track-and-field athletes competing at the Summer Olympics in Rio, he said: "We hope everything will be fine."
