The 42-year-old - one of the athletes implicated in the McLaren Report, which revealed an orchestrated system of Russian doping and cover-ups at their home Sochi Games - had been put forward for the role by the Biathlon Federation of Moscow.

According to Russia's official state news agency TASS, Zaitseva has turned down the nomination and will not be standing for a seat on the RBU Board when the troubled organisation holds elections at an extraordinary conference on July 11.

She had been a controversial choice owing to her involvement in the Russian doping scheme.

The International Olympic Committee's Oswald Commission, which investigated the scandal, ruled that she was a "knowing participant" in the doping scheme in one of the more strongly-written verdicts it delivered.

Zaitseva's samples, it was declared, had marks indicative of tampering and were found to contain abnormal levels of salt.

She was stripped of the silver medal she won in the 4x6 kilometres relay alongside Yana Romanova and Olga Vilukhina, with all three involved in ongoing legal proceedings at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in a bid to reverse the decision.

A hearing in the case took place at CAS in March, where the lawyer representing Zaitseva, Romanova and Vilukhina claimed that signatures on key documents provided by whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov were fake.

Alexei Panich argued Rodchenkov's signature was only on two of the nine documents presented at the hearing.

Rodchenkov provided much of the evidence to the McLaren Report and his lawyer Jim Walden said in response that electronic signatures had been used in place of written ones.

Zaitseva, Romanova and Vilukhina have filed a separate lawsuit against Rodchenkov, the former head of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory who for his own safety remains in an undisclosed location.  

Zaitseva is a double Olympic gold medallist after winning relay golds at Turin 2006 and Vancouver 2010.

She also won mass start silver in Vancouver and boasts three World Championship golds.