A documentary aired by ARD on Sunday (August 22) included testimony from Russian athlete turned whistleblower Andrey Dmitriev, alleging banned coaches remained involved in the sport. 

Recorded on January 12, the 1500 metres runner showed secret video footage of suspended coach Vladimir Kazarin, who is seen in a sports hall in Chelyabinsk during a training session for 400m runner Artem Denmukhametov.

Dmitriev also reports having seen Kazarin at a training camp in Kyrgyzstan last November.

Similar allegations were launched against distance running coach Sergei Yepishin.

Both were banned due to their connection with alleged widespread doping problems in the country.

"The Federation has analysed how many violations of anti-doping rules were exposed in each coaching group," a RusAF spokesperson told official Russian news agency TASS.

"The Russian Ministry of Sport and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency will be informed about the results of this check. 

"It has been decided that each subsequent doping abuse case will be thoroughly investigated and sanctions will be imposed not only on an athlete concerned but to his or her coach as well."

RusAF was suspended by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in 2015 following allegations of doping were contained in the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-commissioned Richard Pound report. 

Only athletes found to have operated in an "effective testing system" outside the country were cleared to compete internationally at events, including last year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Long jumper Darya Klishina was ultimately the only Russian track and field athlete at Rio 2016.

An inspection visit by the IAAF Taskforce headed Rune Andersen to assess improvements concluded yesterday.

He is due to present his findings at the IAAF Council meeting in Cap d’Ail in France on February 6. 

But, while some improvements have been recorded, other concerns also remain.

According to R Sport, a RusAF investigation has been launched following a possible connection between a mass withdrawal of Russian athletes from a domestic indoor competition in Orenburg and the arrival of drug testers.

"The Federation is ready to respond to the objective cases of violation of anti-doping rules," the website reported RusAF President Dmitry Shlyahtin saying.

"For this purpose, they established a hotline and to the whole athletics community brought email address, you can send any information about doping violations and proposals to improve anti-doping work. 

"We believe that in this way, constructively cooperating, you can minimise the cases of doping."