Russian ministry denies WADA accusations of state doping cover-up

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Sports Ministry on Friday denied accusations made by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) that the Russian state had covered up a doping programme for its sports people. A WADA report released on Friday said more than 1,000 Russian athletes competing in summer, winter and paralympic sport were involved in or benefited from an institutional conspiracy to conceal positive doping tests. The Russian ministry said it would carefully study the WADA report and that it would fully cooperate with anti-doping bodies. The Kremlin also said it would study the report, Interfax news agency reported. Russia's athletics chief, Dmitry Shlyakhtin, declined to comment on the WADA report because he said he had not seen it. (Reporting by Jack Stubbs and Dmitry Rogovitskiy; Writing by Alexander Winning; Editing by Jack Stubbs)