Biathlon: Rifle cartridge shortage in Russia down to sanctions, says Anton Babikov

Anton Babikov (second left) was part of the Russia team that won gold in the 4 x 7.5 km relay at the 2017 Biathlon World Championships in Hochfilzen

Russian biathletes are facing a chronic shortage of rifle cartridges because of Western economic sanctions, says former relay world champion Anton Babikov.

Babikov made the claim during Match TV's coverage of the Russian Cup in Siberia, a competition launched for Russian biathletes after they were banned from the World Cup circuit following the invasion of Ukraine.

"We don't talk about it much, but it's now difficult to find cartridges. Everyone is shooting with what they can find," said Babikov.

"Before we were firing off batches of the best cartridges in the world, now it's just some leftovers," added Babikov, who was part of Russia's 2017 gold medal-winning relay team.

Former biathlete Dmitry Vasilyev, a two-time Olympic gold medallist for the Soviet Union, threw his weight behind Babikov's remarks.

"What Babikov says is true. In this area, sanctions have hit really hard. We used to race with imported cartridges, but now you can't get hold of them in Russia," he told betting website Legalbet.ru.

According to Vasilyev, Russia has just one factory which produces biathlon cartridges, but "unfortunately the quality leaves much to be desired".

He said that the best ones were produced by Germany but that Berlin keeps a close eye on its exports: "They monitor the sanctions very closely. They don't sell them to us and this is a problem."

Anna Bogaly, a former biathlete who sits on the Russian Biathlon Union's executive board, insisted the problem was not new, with the grassroots level of the sport worst affected.

In January, first deputy minister of sport Azat Kadyrov admitted that most of the country's sporting bodies depended on equipment imported from abroad. He also said that Russia would have difficulty producing its own alternative kit because of the costs involved.