Russia's sports doping rate is no worse than in other European countries and it has made a "colossal" effort to catch cheats, the country's sports minister said Tuesday.

Vitaly Mutko said in a rare meeting with foreign reporters that Russian authorities had been "dumbfounded" by the doping scandal that hit the country. Russia is ready to let foreign experts monitor every stage of the country's anti-doping campaign for several years to end doubts about its credibility, he added.

The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) now carries out up to 20,000 tests a year, the sports minister told a small group of reporters, including AFP, on the sidelines of the SportAccord convention in Sochi.

"Only two percent of our athletes are being caught doping. That is really a normal indicator just as in all other European countries," Mutko said.

"We are sure that Russia is a reliable partner in anti-doping and we have done and are going to do these activities in a very tough way," he added.

Russia's sport machine is being investigated by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) after a German television documentary alleged in December that widespread doping had been covered up, particularly in athletics.

The IAAF has started proceedings against Viktor Chegin, who heads the Russian race-walking centre in Saransk and has trained more than 20 athletes caught for doping in recent years.

Three of the five latest race walkers banned in January were past or present Olympic champions.

Mutko and other sports leaders have strongly denied any wrongdoing though the Russian athletics federation president has resigned.

"In the last five years Russia has made really colossal efforts in this respect and Russia has done so with WADA and with international federations," Mutko said.

"It took some countries decades to do the same."

The minister said international doping investigators now have free access to all Russian athletes and that RUSADA's independence was guaranteed by law.

The country also has a new laboratory in Moscow that Mutko said matches "really top international standards".

The minister said that Russia has 9,000 international level athletes and that many of them spend 70 percent of the year abroad where they undergo checks.

Mutko had doubts about the tests raised in the television documentary. "It looks like someone has kept them hidden somewhere and then under certain circumstances they have taken them out to confront us.

"The list was huge. We were dumbfounded. Why since 2009 has an athlete been hidden under a table and not been disqualified from any event."

Mutko insisted that Russia has since acted "in good faith" and that athletes and coaches had been punished with up to life bans even if they were star performers.

"We are ready to invite foreign experts for each step of the anti-doping procedure even for several years to end all these doubts and claims made about our country so we can cooperate in good faith.
Source: AFP