Putin orders full inquiry to address allegations

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday his country must "do everything" to eradicate doping, and ordered a full inquiry into allegations of major drug abuse in athletics that have left the nation facing international isolation.

Moscow is scrambling to respond to the bombshell World Anti-Doping Agency report, which outlined systematic doping in Russian athletics, declaring that a foreign specialist should take over its discredited testing laboratory.

The athletics world governing body has given Russia until Friday to come up with answers to the allegations, and with the deadline looming Putin met sports chiefs in Sochi, site of the 2014 Winter Olympics.

The stakes could not be higher for Russia, which risks being excluded from the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio over allegations of corruption and "state-sponsored" doping.

"We must do everything in Russia to rid ourselves of this problem," Putin said in footage shown on Russian television of the meeting.

"We must carry out our own internal inquiry," he said, telling sports officials to show "the most open and professional cooperation with international anti-doping authorities".

"This problem does not exist only in Russia, but if our foreign colleagues have questions, we must answer them," he said.

It is the first time Putin, an avid sportsman, has commented publicly on the charges leveled by an independent commission chaired by WADA's Dick Pound, which rocked the flagship Olympics sport.

Putin echoed a plea by Russia's Olympic Committee not to sacrifice the dreams of clean competitors by collective accusation.

"If someone breaks the rules on doping, the responsibility should be individual," the Kremlin leader said.

"Athletes who have never touched doping should not pay for those who have transgressed."

As the doping storm has developed during the week, Russian officials have given conflicting responses.

The Kremlin on Tuesday dismissed WADA's allegations as "groundless" but 24 hours later a high-ranking sports official conceded doping was an issue.

"We are conscious of the problem that we've got. We've got a problem with doping," Mikhail Butov, the Russian athletics federation's secretary general, told the BBC.

Butov's opinion carries weight, as he is one of the 27 council members of the International Association of Athletics Federations that will meet on Friday to discuss whether to ban Russia from next year's Olympics.

Earlier, Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko said he was open to the possibility of an overseas successor to Grigory Rodchenkov, the disgraced director of Moscow's suspended anti-doping laboratory, who according to WADA deliberately destroyed almost 1,500 samples.