Russian curler Alexander Krushelnitskiy's four-year doping ban from the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics expired last year ©Getty Images

Russian curler Alexander Krushelnitskiy is set to return to mixed doubles competition with partner Anastasia Bryzgalova later this month for the first time since returning from a doping ban imposed at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics.

Krushelnitskiy was banned for four years after testing positive for banned heart drug meldonium at the Games, leading to him and Bryzgalova being stripped of their mixed doubles bronze.

Russian athletes competed under the Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) banner at Pyeongchang 2018 after the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee for the state-sponsored doping scandal, and Krushelnitskiy was one of two competitors from the country who failed a doping test at the Games, the other being bobsleigh pilot Nadezhda Sergeeva.

A Court of Arbitration for Sport appeal against his ban was dropped by Krushelnitskiy, which was reportedly part of an agreement to allow the OAR team to march at the Closing Ceremony.

The ban ruled him out of Beijing 2022, but he had revealed his plans to return to curling competition, including in the men's team event at last year's National Championships.

Russian and Belarusian athletes have been banned from World Curling Federation events for more than one year because of the invasion of Ukraine, and this is set to remain in place until at least the end of the 2022-2023 season.

However, Russian Curling Federation President and chair of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture and Sports Dmitry Svishchev revealed that Krushelnitskiy is set to compete with Bryzgalova in mixed doubles for the first time since his ban at the Nornickel Curling Cup in Dudinka from April 23 to 26.

Alexander Krushelnitskiy, left, and Anastasia Bryzgalova, right, were stripped of their bronze medals at Pyeongchang 2018 because of the former's positive doping test, and they are set to compete together again at the Nornickel Curling Cup ©Getty Images
Alexander Krushelnitskiy, left, and Anastasia Bryzgalova, right, were stripped of their bronze medals at Pyeongchang 2018 because of the former's positive doping test, and they are set to compete together again at the Nornickel Curling Cup ©Getty Images

"We continue the series of international tournaments in Russia," Svishchev told Russia's official state news agency TASS.

"At the end of April, we will again hold the already beloved Arctic tournament Nornickel Curling Cup in polar Dudinka.

"They will compete in official competitions for the first time after a long break.

"We hope that this pair will return to its former high results and once again become the leader in the world of curling."

Svishchev also revealed that teams from three other countries are expected to compete at the tournament.

"It is important for us to hold such large starts in Russia with the participation of foreign teams in order to preserve the competitive experience for national teams in the conditions of exclusion from the sports world," he told TASS.

"In competitions, athletes from Kazakhstan, Serbia and Belarus will also take part."

Krushelnitskiy and Bryzgalova helped Russia to win the World Mixed Curling Championship in Kazan in 2016 and the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in Karlstad in Sweden in the same year.