In an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Bach again defended the decision not to impose a blanket ban on Russian athletes at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro after the publication of the first report.

He claimed the fact that the Canadian lawyer was unable to find a link between the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and the state-sponsored scheme, which was in place between 2011 and 2015 and was in operation at major events including the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, was justification for the course of action the IOC took.

Bach also said there were no such calls for a blanket ban when the East German doping scandal came to light, insisting "people should not be punished for a system for which they can do nothing".

"He [McLaren] was asked whether the ROC was involved in this conspiracy - his answer was no," Bach told FAZ.

"In this regard, our assessment has now been confirmed that at no point in time has there been any indication of the NOC being involved in such a system of manipulation."

In the second report, McLaren revealed over 1,000 athletes from 30 sports had been implicated in the scheme.

The report featured evidence of the tampering of samples of 12 medallists from Sochi 2014, while six winners of 21 medals at the Winter Paralympics also had their sample tampered with.

"For my part, I feel horror," Bach told FAZ.

"Partly, I also feel inner rage.

"But neither anger nor fear are good advisers.

"So in a position of responsibility, you have to immediately ask yourself, how do you deal with this?

"What can be done, so this will hopefully never happen again?"

The latest comments from Bach are seemingly a continuation of his recent change in stance towards Russia after he called for a life ban from the Olympic Games for all figures proven to be involved in the manipulation of doping samples during this month’s IOC Executive Board meeting.

It represented the German's most clear condemnation of Russia since the allegations of state-sponsored doping at the Sochi 2014 surfaced in May.

The German also singled out Russia when speaking about the results of the IOC's retesting programme from Beijing 2008 and London 2012.

Bach inherently criticised the response from Russia to the second part of the report, which has been unanimous in dismissing the findings.

He claimed he is confident that the reaction from the country will be different when two separate IOC Commissions conclude their own investigations into state-sponsored doping in Russia.

Following the release of the second report last Friday (December 9), the IOC announced they had extended the mandate of the Oswald Commission - which is looking into allegations of sample manipulation at Sochi 2014 - to include all samples given by Russian athletes at London 2012.

Another IOC Commission, chaired by Samuel Schmid, the former President of the Swiss Confederation and a member of the IOC Ethics Commission, is addressing the "institutional conspiracy across summer and winter sports athletes who participated with Russian officials within the Ministry of Sport and its infrastructure, such as RUSADA, CSP and the Moscow Laboratory along with the FSB".

Both IOC investigations will have access to the evidence given by McLaren but will also aim to work with a domestic inquiry set established in Russia, chaired by IOC honorary member Vitaly Smirnov.

"I could have imagined a different reaction," Bach said.

"But now the crucial point is: what will the Russian response be in the hearings of the IOC Commissions?

"The final report gave answers to many questions that were still open in the first report.

"The report as such provides stronger and more neutral evidence because it moves away from the statements made by Mr Rodchenkov, the former head of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory and a former Russian intelligence agent.

"What we have now, and this is what is new about the quality of the report by Professor McLaren, is a much clearer identification of the individuals and organisations involved in this conspiracy or manipulation.

"And that is why this must now be further examined and reconsidered."