The fourth part of the explosive series, "The Secret World of Doping: Showdown for Russia”, was broadcast on ARD late last night. 

The authors claim that Russia’s race-walking coach Viktor Chegin, former head of the Olympic Training Center of the Republic of Mordovia, continues to work with Russian athletes despite being banned for life.

Chegin has denied the claims, telling Russian news agency TASS that he is "doing business now that is not connected with sports".

The ARAF was suspended by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in November after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Independent Commission published a report which confirmed allegations of systematic doping.

Rune Andersen, a Norwegian anti-doping expert, was appointed head of a Task Force by the IAAF to assess whether Russia has fulfilled a specific list of criteria necessary for the ban to be lifted and for athletes to be able to compete at Rio 2016.

He is due to report to the IAAF ahead of a decision during a Council meeting in Vienna on June 17.

Russia’s Investigative Committee has reportedly opened criminal proceedings against several members of the ARAF but its President has remained defiant. 

"I cannot say how the release of this film will affect the chances of the ARAF to return to the International Association of Athletics Federations on June 17," Shlyakhtin told TASS.

"For me and all the others there is nothing new in this film.

"In general, this film was about nothing."

ARD journalist Hajo Seppelt is heard on the documentary saying he was tipped off by an unnamed Russian female track-and-field athlete that Chegin was allegedly in the town of Adler where leading Russian race walk athletes train.

Footage said to have been made on April 27 showed a minibus with tinted windows where, according to Seppelt, Chegin was sitting.

The decision of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) to ban Chegin for life was approved by the ARAF on March 25.

Seppelt then meets with an anonymous informer, who claims to have seen Chegin in the minibus and says he is continuing to train athletes.

At the end of the film, Seppelt meets with a former member of the German secret services, who compares Chegin’s photo with that on the footage, and says he is "95 to 99 per cent sure" it was Chegin.

Andersen has thanked Seppelt by e-mail for showing IAAF Task Force counsel Jon Taylor some of the material that featured in the documentary.

"I note in particular the material you have gathered that suggests that Mr Viktor Chegin has been recently coaching Russian race-walkers," he added. 

"If so, that is a very serious matter, because Mr Chegin was provisionally suspended from participation in athletics in August 2015 and was banned for life in March 2016, based on his violations of the IAAF anti-doping rules."

Seppelt also alleges that in 2014, Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko covered up a doping offence made by a footballer who plays for FC Krasnodar.

The team finished fourth in last season's Russian Premier League.

It is claimed the substance involved was Hexarelin, an anabolic steroid, and the failed test was recorded after Krasnodar beat FC Rostov 2-0 in 2014.

The case was not made public and the player involved was not banned, the documentary alleges, citing correspondences which appear to carry Mutko's signature.

Mutko has described ARD’s latest documentary as a "targeted attack" against Russia.

He also claims that he personally is the main target of allegations made by the former head of Moscow’s anti-doping laboratory Grigory Rodchenkov.

Rodchenkov, the former head of Russia's discredited laboratory in Moscow, last month named 15 Russian athletes as having been part of a programme in the build-up to the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games.

He claimed this included ingesting a "three-drug cocktail" of banned steroids which were mixed with alcohol, as well as a covert system to replace the urine of affected medal winners with clean samples using soda containers and baby bottles.

Today, Russian media reported that Rodchenkov had named Alexey Voevoda, a two-time Olympic bobsleigh champion, and three-time Olympic medal winning cross-country skier Maxim Vylegzhanin, as being involved in the Sochi scheme although the claims have been denied.

"It can be seen not just in the German media,” said Mutko of the documentary. 

"It’s a targeted attack against Russia, calm and well-organised.

"Rodchenkov works for the people that have given him refuge.

"We don’t know what he has gathered since 2005.

"He is still to retrieve it."

Rodchenkov sent a document to Seppelt in which he accused Natalia Zhelanova, Mutko's anti-doping advisor, of interference in the activity of the anti-doping laboratory.

Zhelanova was also accused of allegedly discussing bribes aimed to cover up positive tests for doping substances by Russian athletes with representatives of the IAAF.

"I am his [Rodchenkov’s] target," added Mutko, who has recently confirmed he will stand for re-election as the head of the Russian Football Union.

"He hates me in all his interviews.

"My advisor Natalia Zhelanova drew attention to all these things.

"I fired him."