The 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.On Friday about the resignation of the President of the Russian biathlon Union and the refusal to participate in Saturday’s extraordinary report-back election conference of the RBU head announced in 2018 Vladimir Drachev. In a statement, Mr. Drachev, having the status of Deputy of the state Duma, 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.” “The additional workload that the state Duma will not give me the opportunity to focus on the work of the SBR. In this situation I is not possible with all the usual dedication to take in biathlon, especially in the training of the national team of our country for the upcoming Olympic games in 2022,”— said Vladimir Drachev.Photo: Mikhail Tereshchenko / Tashmidu it is also obvious that the reason for his resignation was not the parliamentary workload, and a deep administrative crisis, experienced one of the most visible and most problematic — if only because of bad results in the ending decade, the domestic sports federations. The conflict of Mr. Drachev to the biathlon community came to the public’s attention in early 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. The climax of the conflict was reached in June, when on the website of the RBU, a statement of the Board. It was noted that for the purpose of extraordinary report-back election conference of the RBU made the vast majority of Board members — seven out of ten.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 populist 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”. All this has led to the fact that the RBU was in a difficult financial situation (total debt structure exceeds 30 mln RUB).Instead of Vladimir Drachev lead the Russian biathlon will now Viktor Maigurov. Board member of SBR, Mr. Maigurov, too, like Mr. Drachev, last star of its kind, from 2014 to 2018 Vice-President of the International biathlon Union, and now remained the only candidate for the special conference. The support he has promised to provide the Ministry of sport of the Russian Federation and the Russian Olympic Committee.Alex Armor
