Two more sports officials have been given the boot in a Kremlin-led purge of officials responsible for Russia's poor performance at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
President Dmitry Medvedev sacked Vladimir Loginov and Valentin Piseyev on Thursday from the Presidential Council for the development of physical culture and sport and sporting excellence, and the organization of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and Paralympics and the 2013 Kazan Summer Universiade.
In Vancouver, Russia recorded its worst Winter Olympic results since czarist times, with the team winning just three gold medals, five silver and seven bronze, and finishing 11th in the overall medals table.
A lot of hopes had been pinned on Russia's superstar ice-hockey team, but it was knocked out of the tournament at the quarter-final stage by eventual winners Canada.
In addition, decades of Russian dominance in figure skating came to a dramatic end as Russian athletes failed to grab any gold medals for the first time since 1964.
Russian Olympic Committee head Leonid Tyagachev resigned on March 3, two days after President Dmitry Medvedev said senior sports officials "should make a courageous decision" and quit over the country's "dismal" showing at the Winter Olympics.
Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, who was under heavy pressure to resign, said that Russian skiers "won't race quicker if someone is fired."
MOSCOW, March 25 (RIA Novosti)
