Valentin Balakhnichev, President of the Russian Athletics Federation (ARAF), has announced his resignation following a string of doping scandals involving the country’s top athletes. An online portal, the “Inside games’’ disclosed that Balakhnichev, who has led the ARAF since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, will officially step down later in February.

“I will declare my resignation during the ARAF meeting on Feb. 17 and then this decision must be approved. “I am not going to continue my work until new elections and will cease my credentials that day. “The Presidium should elect the person who will meet obligations of the ARAF president until new elections. “Everything should be done according to the rules,” Balakhnichev was quoted as saying.

According to the portal, Balakhnichev, 65, has finally caved to pressure after an investigation broadcast on German television accused him of being involved in a systematic doping system. It disclosed that the documentary by the German television claimed that up to 99 per cent of Russian athletes used banned drugs. It added that after the documentary, some top Russian athletes including Olympic 3,000 metres gold medalllist Yulia Zaripova were banned.

The banned athlete now faces being stripped of her London 2012 title. It recalls that Russian Olympic race walking champions Sergei Kirdyapkin, Valery Borchin and Olga Kaniskina were banned by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency for abnormal indexes of haematological profiles in their biological passports.

It also added that the scandal has already forced Valentin Maslakov to resign as chief coach of Russian athletics, a post he held since 2007. The German documentary featured serious accusations by 800 metres runner Yulia Stepanova, who has also been banned for a doping violation, and her husband Vitaly Stepanov, who had worked for RUSADA between 2008 and 2011.

The most serious allegation was that Liliya Shobukhova, the second fastest marathoner in history and a three-time winner of the Chicago Marathon and London Marathon champion in 2010. Before her results were annulled, she paid $450,000 (£300,000/€400,000) to avoid a doping ban.

Balakhnichev had announced only on Jan. 30 that the ARAF planned to file two lawsuits in the German courts this month against ARD, the station which broadcast the programme. The doping accusations led to Balakhnichev being forced to step down temporarily as treasurer of the International Association of Athletics Federations after the world governing body launched an ethics inquiry.

The World Anti-Doping Agency has also set up a special panel chaired by its former chairman Richard Pound, an influential member of the International Olympic Committee, to investigate the claims. Balakhnichev, a member of the IAAF’s ruling Council since 2007 and a former vice-president of European Athletics, was the national athletics coach of the Soviet Union between 1978 and 1984.