Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko has revealed that he welcomes an investigation by the World Anti-Doping Agency after a German television documentary claimed that doping was rife in the country.
The documentary also alleges that a number of suspicious samples have been ignored, but WADA has wasted little time in collecting as many as 3,000 samples from Russian athletes as it looks to progress with its investigation.
Mutko told R-Sport: "They took around 3,000 samples to be checked in laboratories. I wrote a letter to WADA, in which I said very precisely that we were open to receiving any commission and ready to show everything.
"A commission from WADA has already been to visit us, which included three people who were led by the director of science. We will continue to work along this route and we are completely open."
Earlier this month, it was announced that Dick Pound, the former head of WADA, would chair an independent commission panel looking into the allegations from January 1.
Darren Plant
