Russia are currently languishing in 11th place in the medals table behind the Netherlands with 15 medals, which is half of the total which was predicted for the team.

The poor display, which has seen Russia win only three gold medals, their lowest total since they started competing as a separate nation at Lillehammer in 1994.

The lowlights have been the failure of a Soviet or Russian figure skater to win a gold medal for the first time since the Olympics in Innsbruck in 1964 and the capitulation of the mulit-million dollar ice hockey team, who were humiliated 7-3 in the quarter-final by host country Canada.

It has led to calls for Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko and Leonid Tyagachev, the President of Russia's Olympic Committee (ROC), to resign.

Putin, who spearheaded Sochi's successful bid to host the 2014 Olympics, the first time that Russia has hosted the Winter Games. has promised an inquiry but has refused to condemn the team.

He said: "Of course we expected more from our team, but this is still no reason to lose heart, wear sackcloth and ashes and self-flagellate.

"Of course it's a call for some serious critical analysis and some conclusions.

"However, this critical analysis should be aimed at fixing the situation and creating all the necessary conditions for our team to train and to perform properly at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi."

Mutko claimed that Russia is now paying the price of the Soviet Union's collapse and that it will require time for a new system to be put into place.

He said: "The current situation is a consequence of what we lost in the 1990s.

"You can't prepare a top-level athlete in an hour."

But Vyacheslav Fetisov, one of Russia's most famous ice hockey players who won two Olympic gold medals and was Russia's Sports Minister during the Sochi bid, has warned that failure will not be tolerated in 2014.

He said: "A lot of money, hopes and expectations have been invested in the Sochi Olympics.

"We don't have the right to lose at home."

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