Russian President Vladimir Putin signed into law the bill introducing prison terms for coaches and medical staff who force athletes to use banned performance-enhancing drugs.

The law, which calls for a one-year jail term for officials who force minors to dope, follows similar approval in the Duma and Senate earlier this month.

Russia is seeking to demonstrate they are taking serious measures to combat anti-doping problems.

World Anti-Doping Agency's (WADA) deputy director general Rob Koehler revealed on Sunday (November 20) during a presentation at the WADA Foundation Board meeting in Glasgow that inspectors still had "limited access" to military cities

This is despite many athletes listing them as their training bases. 

"We have received a list of anti-doping officers who will receive a pass in the closed cities, so that they can verify the athletes," former Sports Minister Mutko told Russia's official news agency TASS.

"No-one will change the legislation because of the situation in all countries have closed the city.

"But this will not be a problem."

A total of 44 acknowledged "closed administrative-territorial formations" remain in Russia today for which all foreigners must receive a special permit to enter. 

It is not clear why such a promise has not been given by a figure with the seniority of Mutko until now.

A WADA report in June highlighted how testers felt intimidated when accessing military cities and were faced with armed FSB agents threatening them with expulsion from the country.

It was also suggested that athletes listed such cities as their bases even if they were not there, in order to deter the testers.

Testers were also unable to attend key Olympic qualification events, including National Weightlifting and National Greco-Roman Wrestling Championships, held in such areas.

Russia remains under investigation for allegedly operating a state-sponsored doping system at events including the 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Sochi. 

Russian officials were urged at the WADA Foundation Board meeting to admit wrongdoing in order to show they had learnt from their errors and thus speed-up the reform process.

More furious denials and criticisms of anti-doping authorities have been issued today, however.

This included Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, who dismissed a secretly recorded informal conversation between WADA President Sir Craig Reedie and director general Olivier Niggli discussing the timeline for lifting the suspension of the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA). 

In a conversation broadcast on the RT television station, the two officials discussed "not rushing" to allow RUSADA back into the fold. 

"These are nothing more than dirty statements," Zakharova wrote on her Facebook page. 

"That was not even a conversation between two political technologists who have to deal, for example, with an election campaign.

"These are sports officials representing world sports that should be beyond politics but is always involved in it."

Former All-Russia Athletics Federation President and International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) treasurer Valentin Balakhnichev has also criticised a BBC poll in which whistleblower Yulia Stepanova was named among the top 100 influential women in the world for 2016.

Balakhnichev is awaiting the outcome of a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) appeal against the life-ban he was handed by the IAAF in January for alleged involvement in a plot by which IAAF officials linked to former President Lamine Diack accepted money in return for the covering-up of failed drugs tests.

"The decision is purely politicised," he said to TASS about Stepanova, who failed a drugs test herself before turning whistleblower along with RUSADA-employee husband, Vitaly Stepanov.

"I believe she is unworthy of inclusion in there, and it is a huge political mistake and her contribution to the world and Russia is insignificant."