The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) recommended banning Russia from participating in athletic competitions because of evidence of extensive doping practices, according to a new report released on Monday.

WADA's independent commission report details Russia's involvement in doping, cover-ups, and extortion, and urges its suspension from track and field competitions, as well as the upcoming 2016 Rio Olympics.

"It's worse than we thought," said report co-author Richard W. Pound, via The Associated Press. "It may be a residue of the old Soviet Union system."

The report implicates various athletes, coaches, trainers, doctors and institutions within Russia as active participants in the doping practices. The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) and the accredited laboratory in Moscow were also said to be complicit in the practices.

Specific instances of corruption included notifying athletes when they would be drug tested, and destroying blood samples.

Pound said the Russian government was almost certainly complicit in the doping, calling it "state-sponsored" and saying, "They would certainly have known."

"What made these allegations even more egregious was the knowledge that the government of the Russian Federation provides direct funding and oversight for the above institutions, thus suggesting that the federal government was not only complicit in the collusion, but that it was effectively a state-sponsored regime," said the report.

The report also implicated the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), pointing to "systemic failures" in the anti-doping program and "widespread inaction" against Russian athletes during the 2012 London Olympics. Allegations of bribery and extortion may also soon come to light.

The IAAF has responded to the report saying it would consider sanctions against Russia, as well as suspensions from upcoming track and field events.

Vladimir Uiba, head of the Federal Medical-Biological Agency that treats Russian athletes, denied the allegations, AP reports.

Uiba said the report was a "absolutely politically motivated statement from the category of sanctions against Russia. It has no basis because the doping tests which are done are collected from the athletes by WADA commissioners themselves."

With the Rio Olympics nine months away, Pound said Russia has limited time to clean up their act in order to ensure participation in the games.