The RBF have been heavily impacted by the series of doping cases involving athletes, including Zubkov, who, despite being stripped of his two Olympic gold medals he won at Sochi 2014, remains the organisation’s President.

Zubkov was among the athletes to have a doping violation confirmed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) last year following the alleged state-sponsored doping in Russia.

He was disqualified from the men’s two and four-man bobsleigh events at the Games, with the International Olympic Committee disqualifying the teams in both competitions.

A court in Moscow yesterday rejected a Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) appeal against the capital city’s highest civil court, who had ruled the CAS procedure was unjust and should not be recognised in Russia.

That means Zubkov is legally recognised as an Olympic champion - but only in Russia.

The ROC argued the ruling from the court, the legitimacy of which was rejected by the IOC, could lead to further sanctions against Russia in the build-up to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo.

The ROC could now appeal to a higher court.

Russia’s second four-man team were also disqualified after finishing in fourth place, with three members having had sanctions confirmed.

Alexander Kasjanov, Aleksei Pushkarev and Ilvir Khuzin are all currently serving provisional suspensions from the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, along with Zubkov.

The scandal has reportedly impacted on the RBF, with sponsors having now left the governing body. 

"Actions were taken so that all the sponsors would leave, now the Federation has not one of them left," Zubkov told Russia's official state news agency TASS. 

"I hope that the Federation will still turn its face, because sponsorship support is support primarily for athletes, specialists, medical personnel.

"The team leaves at full strength, but it is devoid of additional bonuses, bonus at the end of the season."

Russia have enjoyed one IBSF World Cup podium so far this season, Nadezhda Sergeeva and Yulia Belomestnykh having won a two-woman silver medal at Sigulda in Latvia.

Russian skeleton athletes have, however, enjoyed multiple successes this season.

Elena Nikitina, who was one of 28 Russian athletes to successful appeal a doping sanction at Sochi 2014 to CAS last year, has won two of the women’s World Cup races to head the season standings.

Along with the Sochi 2014 bronze medallist, Alexander Tretiakov also succeeded in overturning a ban at CAS.

This allowed him to have his Olympic title from Sochi 2014 restored, although he was not allowed to compete at Pyeongchang 2018.

Tretiakov has won two World Cup events to lead the overall men's standings, while his compatriot at Pyeongchang 2018 silver medallist Nikita Tregubov is second.

He was won one race this season, while Tregubov also has a third place to his name.