Krushelnitckii failed for heart medication meldonium at the Winter Olympics in South Korea last month where he won mixed doubles bronze with wife Anastasia Bryzgalova.

It created huge controversy as Russia were already competing neutrally at the Games - as the Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) - due to manipulation of the drug testing scheme at their home Sochi 2014 Olympics.

Despite this, and a second Russian failure from bobsleigh's Nadezhda Sergeeva, the country had its suspension overturned by the International Olympic Committee yesterday.

It was hoped that the ban would be lifted in time to allow Russia to march under their own flag at the Closing Ceremony on Sunday (February 25), but the two drug failures proved key in this not happening.

Krushelnitckii, whose failure meant OAR were stripped of the bronze medal which was presented to Norway, has always denied taking the substance deliberately and officials in Russia have insisted the levels of meldonium found could not have been performance-enhancing.

He has set his sights on atonement at the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022 but has ruled out foul play from a former partner, which had been suggested.

"She is not connected with any doping," he said to RIA Novosti.

"This girl could not be mixed up with this story."

He added to Russia's state news agency TASS: "This situation shocked us, but we will continue training to prove in the next Olympics that this was an accident. 

"We will try to redeem ourselves and show our best curling."