Twelve-time winners Sweden and Finland, who have reached the last four at every edition, and 2017 semi-finalists Norway all decided against participating due to uncertainty with regards to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event had already been postponed in 2020 because of the pandemic, and will now be held in October next year.

The Russian Bandy Federation is set to be joined by Sweden, Finland and Kazakhstan in Group A, with Norway, the United States, Germany and Estonia in Group B.

It will still be staged at the Ice Palace Baikal in the Russian city of Irkutsk, after the Federation of International Bandy (FIB) received approval in June for an exemption to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) sanctions against the host country.

The new dates for the 2020 edition are after the World Championship in Syktyvkar, also in Russia, which had been scheduled for 2021 but has now been allocated dates of March 27 to April 3 2022.

Russia was banned from hosting major events such as World Championships by World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) sanctions, initially for four years until this was halved by the CAS in December 2020.

The CAS ruling said Russia should be stripped of any events it already has the right to host "unless it is legally or practically impossible to do so."

WADA confirmed the FIB had received an exemption for its World Championship, citing the postponement from 2020 to 2021 and the lack of interest and facilities from other nations in hosting the event.

Russia has won the last two editions of the Bandy World Championship, beating Sweden on both occasions.