There is still much confusion, though, as to whether the ban could be partially, rather than fully, lifted and over whether the decision will be made today or tomorrow.  

It had been expected that a final decision would be communicated following an International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board meeting this afternoon, where a report is due to be delivered by an implementation group charged with overseeing Russia's adherence to the regulations.

It is now possible, though, that they could instead deliver only a private recommendation to the IOC Session before a final decision is announced tomorrow just hours before the Closing Ceremony is due to take place at the Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium. 

The IOC claim this would foster more open debate.

It would, however, also allow more time for overtures to be made with the Russian side.

South Africa's Sam Ramsamy, a former IOC Executive Board member and close ally of President Thomas Bach, was in no doubt that the ban should not be lifted after the latest failure.

Sergeeva tested positive for banned stimulant trimetazidine after finishing 12th in the two-woman bobsleigh event, where she had been the pilot with partner Anastasia Kocherzhova. 

According to Sport Express, Sergeeva has handed back her accreditation and left the Athletes' Village having told officials she does not wish to have her B-sample tested.

That will be seen as an admission of guilt. 

The disclosure of another positive drugs test follows curler Aleksandr Krushelnitckii being stripped of the Olympic mixed doubles bronze medal.

"My view is that it is going to be very difficult to convince all of us that we should open up Russian participation now," Ramsamy said.

"Definitely not at these Games. 

"I think the doping cases have compromised them badly, no doubt.

"The Russian NOC should have been very clear, very precise and very concrete, and said [to athletes]: 'We are being watched by the world, we are being watched by the IOC members and make sure that, when you go to the Games, you are absolutely clean'.

"This didn’t happen.

"I personally will not support the reinstatement."

Other IOC members echoed Ramsamy's stance that the second doping failure had changed the situation.

It has emerged that Sergeeva recently appeared in a YouTube video wearing a t-shirt which said, "I Don't Do Doping". 

The video has been deleted since it emerged she had tested positive for trimetazidine, a stimulant usually used to treat patients suffering from angina, which is believed to offer many of the same benefits as meldonium, the drug Krushelnitckii failed for earlier at the Olympics. 

Earlier this month, Sergeeva claimed in an interview with Associated Press that competitors from other countries had become more friendly to her after she had been cleared by the IOC to compete at Pyeongchang 2018. 

"I don’t know why, but they’ve started talking to us more than ever before," she told them. 

"I feel it. 

"Maybe it’s a sign to them that we’re clean.

"There’s a lot of people coming up and saying, 'we’re happy you’re here'."

An open letter has today been sent by the Institute of National Anti-Doping Organisations (iNADO) to the IOC and implementation group, chaired by Aruba's IOC Executive Board member Nicole Hoevertsz, urging them against lifting their Russian suspension.

"You may feel that the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) is part of the Olympic family, and deserves to be welcomed back into the Olympic house," argues the letter, which is signed by iNADO Board of Directors chair Doug MacQuarrie.

"We would argue that Olympic moments have been stolen by doped members of past Russian contingents with no acknowledgement of responsibility by the ROC nor indication of contrition; the sanction must align with the IOC 'zero tolerance for doping policy'."

The letter urged the IOC to adopt more specific conditions, including an acknowledgement of the findings of the various IOC and World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA)-commissioned reports as well as the turning over to WADA of samples, evidence and data from the Moscow Laboratory.

Russia are being forced to compete neutrally under the Olympic Athletes from Russia (OAR) team name in response to the "systemic manipulation" of the anti-doping regime at Sochi 2014.

Two of the four positive tests to have emerged here during these Games so far have involved members of this team.

ROC President Alexander Zhukov, who is currently also suspended as an IOC member, arrived here yesterday.

Igor Levitin, a ROC vice-president and former Transport Minister who is a close aide of Russian President Vladimir Putin. met with Bach here earlier this week, although the IOC claimed it was a "four-minute meeting" primarily to wish him happy birthday.

It is now possible that the IOC decision will emerge during the men's ice hockey final tomorrow between the OAR and Germany.

"The next step I think still needs to be decided by the Executive Board, but clearly there is a Session tomorrow, and there will be debate tomorrow," added Adams when repeatedly asked to clarify the process today.

"But a decision on what the next stage will be, whether there will be a proposal put to a Session or just a full open debate at the Session tomorrow will be decided at the EB this afternoon."