Russian athletes were banned from the Tashkent Marathon and Dushanbe International Half Marathon ©Getty Images

Russian Athletics Federation (RusAF) acting President Irina Privalova and Russian runner Stepan Kiselev have expressed their disappointment over the ban of the country's athletes at the Tashkent Marathon and Dushanbe International Half Marathon.

The half marathon took place in Tajikistan's capital city on April 16 following the Tashkent event last month in Uzbekistan.

"There is, of course, little pleasure in the fact that our athletes were not allowed to participate in the races in Tashkent and Dushanbe, and I am very sad that their organizers did this to the Russians," said Sydney 2000 400 metres hurdles gold medallist Privalova, as reported by Russian state-run news agency TASS.

"I can only guess why reasons, refusals were made.

"Perhaps people decided to play it safe in this difficult political situation and did not allow our athletes to avoid some possible unpleasant consequences.

"But it cannot be ruled out that this was a certain position of certain people."

Stepan Kiselev was barred from running at the Dushanbe International Half Marathon due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine ©Getty Images
Stepan Kiselev was barred from running at the Dushanbe International Half Marathon due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine ©Getty Images

"I was not allowed to participate in the Dushanbe half marathon, the same thing happened with the Tashkent marathon, which took place on March 27," Kiselev said, as reported by TASS.

"The organisers of both races decided to refuse the applications of Russian athletes.

"Rinas Akhmadeev was going to run with me in Tashkent, and in Dushanbe - Dina Aleksandrova."

"I won’t say that these refusals were unexpected for me.

"In today’s conditions, I was initially not sure that I would get the opportunity to start there.

"I was ready to be refused, but, of course, I experienced disappointment.

"And our feelings have long been no one cares."

Due to Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine, World Athletics banned the country's athletes from competing at World, European and Diamond League championships.

However, this ban did not extend to international marathons hence why Russia's Akhmadeev was allowed to compete at the Almaty Marathon in Kazakhstan on April 17 which he won.

The United Nations has recorded at least 2,072 civilians deaths in Ukraine while 2,818 have been injured so far in the conflict although it believes that the true figure is considerably higher.