Two members of the host nation's ice hockey team at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games are accused of submitting samples showing readings that were physically impossible to be held by a woman.

This has been used by the McLaren Report as evidence of a sample manipulation programme through which Russian samples were illegally swapped for fake clean ones.

Mutko, however, strongly denies this conclusion and has put forward an alternative explanation.

"If a woman takes a prohibited substance and then kisses a man, then it might be a scandal in which the man [is] identified as doped," the former Sports Minister was reported as saying by Russian website Championat.com. 

"And if a woman has sex with a man, and then have a doping control within five days, then it will appear male hormones, and it will arouse suspicion in various doping tests."

Canadian world pole vault champion Shawn Barber and French tennis player Richard Gasquet have each successfully blamed positive drugs tests for cocaine on kissing women who had ingested the substance.

However, Mutko's explanation on male DNA has already been dismissed by medical experts.

Sweden's Arne Ljungqvist, who stood down as chair of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Medical Commission after Sochi 2014, told Expressen that he does not believe this is plausible.

"DNA is very personal, it does not share it in a sexual relationship," he said. 

Neither of the ice hockey players have yet been named. 

This comes as Russian figures continue to appeal evidence in the McLaren Report.

A key precedent could be set over the next week when the International Ski Federation are due to rule against six cross-country skiers - including Olympic champion Aleksandr Legkov - provisionally suspended after being accused of involvement in the samples manipulation.

Christof Wieschemann, the German lawyer defending Legkov and team-mate Evgeny Belov, claimed this week that evidence in the Report is "inconsistent".

He alleges that Belov did not compete at some of the events he is named in connection with.

Sporting figures seem more confident in the strength of the evidence, however, and there is an increasing sense of frustration in some quarters against Russian figures, such as Mutko, who refuse to accept any culpability. 

In another twist, a court in Moscow has, however, ruled to reject a defamation lawsuit filed by Russian middle distance runner against German TV channel ARD.

Kristina Ugurova was among those secretly recorded by fellow athlete turned whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova discussing their doping programme.

She filed a lawsuit against ARD, who broadcast the recordings, in an attempt to protect her "honour and dignity".

"Having heard both sides in the case, the court ruled against Ugarova’s complaints against the ARD broadcaster," Dorogomilovsky Court of Moscow spokesperson Yevgeniya Gorokhova told the TASS news agency.

It is possible Ugarova could still appeal the verdict.