Acute administrative crisis in the Russian biathlon Union (RBU) has resulted in the resignation of its President, Vladimir Drachev, which other leaders of the structures were accused of an authoritarian style of management and inefficiency. The day before extraordinary report-back election conference Mr Drachev resigned. It will be replaced by another well-known former biathlete, member of the Board of the RBU Viktor Maigurov, who got not the most pleasant legacy. One of the most prominent federations, has debts, is still under international sanctions and have not shows any results that match the demand for supervised its kind.Yesterday that resignation of the President of the Russian biathlon Union and refuses to participate in Saturday’s extraordinary report-back election conference, announced the head of the RBU 2018 Vladimir Drachev. In a statement, Mr. Drachev, Deputy of the state Duma of the Russian Federation, said that “after the adoption of the amendments to the Constitution of the Russian Federation, it became apparent that it was necessary to concentrate on the work on draft laws that are necessary in connection with the adopted amendments.” According to Vladimir Drachev, “an additional burden in the state Duma” will not give him the opportunity “to focus on the work of the SCP”. “In this situation I is not possible with all the usual dedication to take in biathlon, especially in the preparation of the national team for the upcoming Olympic games in 2022”, he said.Meanwhile, it is obvious that the reason for his resignation was not the parliamentary workload, and a deep administrative crisis in the SBR. The conflict of Vladimir Drachev, the biathlon community spilled into the public realm at the beginning of April, when it was published a letter signed by 24 famous former athletes and current coaches and officials, demanding the resignation of the President of the RBU for a complex of reasons, sports, managerial and financial nature. The climax he reached a month ago, when the site of the RBU, a statement of the Board. It was noted that for the purpose of extraordinary report-back election conference was made by the vast majority of members of the key bodies of the Federation, seven out of ten.Speaking against the RBU President accused him that he “does not fulfill the provisions of the current legislation of the Russian Federation as part of the activities of the public organization and the Charter of SBR”, and “goes far beyond your own powers than to cause considerable economic and reputational damage of SBR”. In addition, considered the signatories of the statement, “the President of the RBU does not control the current situation and completely detached from real world problems faced by SBR”, “systematically publicly distributes populistss and often conflicting promises” and “does not fulfill the decision of the Board of the Union, including those that he personally attended and supported”. In addition, Vladimir Drachev, members of the Board of the RBU, “has his own opinion on many important issues and too often trusts people who are less familiar with the situation in the Russian biathlon, pursuing personal interests”.It is already clear who will lead the Russian biathlon after Vladimir Drachev. The only candidate registered to participate in Saturday’s election, was another famous former biathlonist Victor Maigurov. Theoretically, he could still not become President: it is necessary to collect two thirds of votes of the delegates of the conference. But Kommersant’s sources called Mr. maigurova “pre-agreed at all levels candidate.” That his election is a mere formality, evidenced by the speed with which reacted to the resignation of Vladimir Drachev head of the sports Department of the country — the Ministry of sports of the Russian Federation and the Russian Olympic Committee. Their lead Oleg Matytsin and Stanislav Pozdnyakov was quick to respond with statements expressing readiness to support the new head of the RBU.Viktor Maigurov for a long time, since the middle of last decade, working sports authority. But the most notable point of his biography is, apparently, the work from 2014 to 2018 Vice-President of the International biathlon Union (IBU). The fact that SBR is still under sanctions of the IBU due to the numerous doping violations prohibiting, for example, carrying out in Russia the international competitions and restore relationship with him will be a major challenge for Mr. maigurova.However, such a daunting task before him is several. For example, Victor Maigurov, explaining its position shortly before the report-election conference, acknowledged that the total debt of the RRF that are experiencing difficulties attracting sponsors be “more than 30 million rubles” (of which about two thirds is owed to IBU).To the public same basic problem — the mismatch performance of the Federation with the demand for supervised its kind. In the final decade, the biathlon is among the most popular Russian sports, standing in a row with, say, football and hockey. But the growing popularity accompanied by a sharp deterioration of the results once reliable winter look. Over a decade in top competitions the representatives of the Russian biathlon has won only three gold medals, and stars the same level of Vladimir Drachev and Victor Maigurov, multiple world Champions, it almost ceased to appear.Alex Armor
