It is certainly no goodwill mission. Their controversial former Olympic super-heavyweight gold medallist Alexander Povetkin will arrive in London to declare his desire to inflict some serious damage on the features and reputation of Britain's own Olympic and current multi-belted world champion, Anthony Joshua.

We have all enjoyed watching the Russians woo the world with their geniality and hospitality these past few weeks, but what happens next is not exactly glasnost in gloves.

The 38-year-old Povetkin comes as a real merchant of menace.

He and the unbeaten Big Josh are due to meet at Wembley Stadium on September 22 in another boxing blockbuster designed to hit yet another Joshua jackpot with an 80,000 plus crowd.

The blond Russian doubtless will be built up as a real-life Ivan Drago.

He has already flexed his powerful fists against another British Olympic boxing medal winner, David Price, who won bronze at Beijing 2008, four years after Povetkin had himself secured gold in Athens.

Price, whose fragile chin is no stranger to a left hook, was flattened in five in March at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff where Povetkin had become the first Russian sports figure to visit the United Kingdom since the noxious novichok business.

He was actually quite well received by the crowd and was himself forced to take a count in the third round by the equally big-hitting Price, before catching up with and heavily clouting the unfortunately ever-vulnerable Liverpudlian giant.

There is no doubt Povetkin does present a clear and present danger to the Joshua supremacy. For four or five rounds at least.

After that, if Joshua is still standing, he is liable to run out of gas as he did in his only defeat in 35 bouts when he was floored four times and heavily outpointed by then champion Wladimir Klitschko in Moscow back in 2013.

But the real question over this fight is whether Povetkin deserves his shot as the official challenger for the World Boxing Association title, one of the four belts held by 28-year-old Joshua.

Some suggest he was part of Russia's now shamed "state" doping system. He has twice failed drugs tests yet has lived to fight another day. He certainly has friends in high places.

In December 2016, Povetkin knocked out last-minute replacement opponent Johann Duhaupas just hours after it emerged he had failed a drugs test. Again.

Povetkin had been due to fight Bermane Stiverne for the World Boxing Council (WBC) interim world title.

But the Russian tested positive for the banned muscle-building substance ostarine and his Haitian-Canadian opponent pulled out on the morning of the fight.

Frenchman Duhaupas had been on stand-by to fight Povetkin at the Expo Center in Yekaterinburg in Russia. Maybe Povetkin's people suspected something like this might happen.

Duhaupas was duly knocked out in the sixth round when Povetkin flattened him with a powerful left-hook which left him motionless on the canvas.

As I wrote here at the time, incredibly, it was Povetkin's second failed doping test that year. And naturally he had "no idea" how the drugs got into his system.

He lost another title shot in May when he tested positive for meldonium - no doubt dipping his fingers into the same performance-enhancing sweetie jar as another Russian superstar, tennis diva Maria Sharapova - before a bout with WBC champion Deontay Wilder, which also had to be abandoned. 

This was around the time when the real stain appeared over Russian sport.

But on that occasion, the WBC, after banning and fining him, ultimately accepted Povetkin's explanation that he had stopped taking the substance before it was banned in 2016.

So the Russian boxing authorities allowed him to fight on against a hopelessly inadequate opponent.

It so happens that Povetkin, along with manager Andrey Ryabinski, is said to be close to Vladimir Putin.

Hmm...

Makes you wonder. But then so much about Russia - and indeed boxing - does too.