The 32-year-old sprint canoeist, a member of the Russian K4 team which claimed the world 1,000 metres title in 2013, was caught in an out-of-competition test conducted by the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) in March.

According to RUSADA, Zhestkov is the 10th Russian athlete who is serving a suspension for using EPO. 

Zhestkov, part of the crew which finished fourth in the K4 1,000m event at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, will not be able to return to competition until May 2023.

He will miss next year's Olympic Games in Tokyo and the drugs ban effectively ends his career in the sport.

Zhestkov won a World Championships bronze medal in 2011 and clinched two gold medals at the Summer Universiade in Kazan two years later.

He also earned the K4 1,000m silver medal at the 2016 European Championships and won gold as a member of a Russian K4 1,000m crew at an ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup in Duisburg in 2013.

Zhestkov joins skiers Yegor Berezin and Vasily Pushkin, athletes Yevgeny Khokhlov, Alexander Yargunkin and Xenia Savina, rowers Ksenia Yamaeva and Alexey Korovashkov, cyclist Alexander Budaragin and swimmer Olesya Moiseeva on the list of Russian athletes serving a doping ban for testing positive for the prohibited blood booster.