Spokesman for Russian president Vladmir Putin says doping accusations 'unfounded'

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman dismissed accusations his country led a state-sponsored doping program for its track athletes, charges levied in a World Anti-Doping Agency report released on Monday.

“As long as there is no evidence, it is difficult to consider the accusations, which appear rather unfounded,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

Part of the reason there may not be as much evidence --- although the lengthy report is damning --- is that Moscow testing laboratory director Grigory Rodchenko admitted to intentionally destroying 1,417 samples to obstruct the investigation.

The independent WADA commission’s investigation alleged Russian track officials, coaches and doctors aided athletes in dodging doping regulations. The commission called for a ban of the country’s track and field athletes through 2016.

Meanwhile, WADA moved Tuesday to strip the lab of its accreditation. All samples collected in the country from athletes must be sent to a WADA-approved lab in another country.

Russian anti-doping executive Nikita Kamaev said while the lab is shuttered, The Associated Press reports Kamaev said RUSADA is still functioning.

Kamaev also disputed part of the report where investigators alleged that Russia’s  security services – known as the FSB, the successor to the Soviet-era KGB --- were inside the Olympic testing lab at the 2014 Sochi Games and “actively imposed an atmosphere of intimidation on laboratory process and staff.”