Russian anti-doping agency (Rusada) boss Nikita Kamaev described the claims as "wanton speculation" and sports minister Vitaly Mutko called it a ploy to "belittle Russian sport". President Vladimir Putin has now been recruited to suture the haemorrhaging of their reputation.
Russia seems prepared to wear a significant proportion of blame.
When the news broke, initial concerns suggested the Games movement risked its first major boycott in 32 years. The last came when the Soviet-led eastern bloc refused to attend the Los Angeles Olympics in response to the 1980 US-led boycott of Moscow following the USSR's invasion of Afghanistan.
High Performance Sport New Zealand chief executive Alex Baumann was directly affected by the 1984 boycott. As an individual medley swimmer for Canada, he won gold and set world records over 200m and 400m.
"I felt bad for those athletes who lost their last shot at a Games. You always have a sense the athletes are punished.
"The IAAF [track and field's governing body] need to decide if athletes or countries need to be sanctioned in this instance. [Such behaviour] can't be tolerated and we need to send a strong message.
"Yet we also want to ensure we get the best competition. Russia does not influence the Eastern bloc as much as in the past but if they boycotted, other countries could still follow."
Drug Free Sport New Zealand boss Graeme Steel says the revelations fall into glass half-full and half-empty categories.
"I thought we [the anti-doping advocates] had got on top of systemic doping. Clearly we haven't.
"On the other hand, this is a compelling and comprehensive [Wada] report. This would not have happened pre-Wada. I think it's their best work."
"Until athletes stand up and say they've had enough, it will forever be a battle. The husband and wife whistle-blowers deserve credit, otherwise we'd still suspect without evidence."
Steel wants prudence.
"We need to be careful about doing things ad hoc. If Russia are banned it can't just be a knee-jerk decision, that's the only caveat for me.
"It needs to encompass anybody who has evidence produced against them in future."
Conversely, Baumann and Steel sympathised with athletes operating in oppressive regimes.
"It's hard if they're punished for not complying, like being on Lance Armstrong's [cycling] teams," Steel says. "You're forced to get with the programme or get out. The odd brave person must step forward."
"That has to be put into the equation," Baumann says of coercion. "Some athletes just follow instructions from a regime. If they don't, they get discarded.
"I always believe there will be cheating but, hopefully, it's not a systemic approach. I know what it's like to witness winning at all costs. Canada went through that with the Ben Johnson scandal at Seoul in 1988. Unfortunately 'winning' became a dirty word and it took us years to recover."
For Steel it has been a pivotal week in a perpetual fight.
"We can take tremendous satisfaction Wada's had the capacity to commission a group to achieve this.
"You don't take on Russia lightly but [independent commission head] Dick Pound doesn't give up easily. Frankly, I didn't have a lot of confidence that they'd get to the bottom of it, but they've delved a decent way down.
"The message is that anti-doping must be clear of sporting politics because Rusada was clearly in their government's pocket and the anti-doping group in the IAAF was allegedly influenced by [former President Lamine] Diack."
Diack is provisionally suspended as an honorary IAAF member while he is investigated by French police over allegations he accepted bribes to cover up positive tests.
"There need to be new structures with Wada playing a key role, but they can't do the testing," Steel says. "That's like the referee starting to play. Somehow they need to bring about truly independent structures.
"They currently don't have the resources; I think there is a proposal their funding be increased three per cent which is rats-and-mice compared to what they need to come to grips with this. The sporting world says they're offering support but actually provide Wada with the equivalent of Wayne Rooney's salary. It doesn't stack up."
