BARVIKHA (Moscow Region), April 27 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday that sports medicine and anti-doping measures should be improved to prevent a problem for the state.

"We must raise sports medicine to a new level, including anti-doping controls, as the situation regarding this is not that simple," Medvedev said.

He recalled several recent high-profile cases surrounding Russian athletes and doping scandals adding that "in essence it has turned into a state problem and must be dealt with at governmental level."

Three Russian biathlon racers tested positive in February for the Russian version of the banned substance Erythropoietin (EPO) at the Biathlon World Championships in South Korea's Pyeongchang. The athletes were all disqualified and forced to leave the country.

Last year, just days before the opening of the 2008 Olympics in China seven Russian women athletes were disqualified from the Games after they were ruled to have switched urine samples before tests for performance-enhancing drugs.

The problem of performance-enhancing drugs has already been raised at a state level by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who in February urged tougher penalties for those athletes using drugs and proposed establishing a state doping control system.