Russian athletes’ homecoming delayed for three hours as giant nesting doll gets stuck in aircraft door

RUSSIA'S Olympic stars endured a frustrating homecoming after a giant doll delayed their flight for three hours.

A bemused journalist tweeted photos of two men trying to cram a "hellish matryoshka" through the door of a plane carrying some of the team and country's media.

The guilty item had been bought from the country's fan pavilion in Rio - although why somebody would purchase a national outside Russia is a mystery.

Dmitry Simonov, deputy editor-in-chief at the popular Russian sports newspaper, Sport-Express, posted photographs on his of the bulbous doll and updates on the delay.

He said: “Great! The matryoshka from the Russian house is trapped in the doors at the airport. :-))) No one understands what to do )))."

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Hours later, Simonev tweeted again showing the plane still on the ground.

He claimed a second flight carrying more Olympians was also delayed because of the "hellish matryoshka."

Simonev added: “The golden flight of Russia’s Olympic Committee hasn’t been able to take-off from Rio for 3 hours because THEY CAN’T LOAD THE MATRYOSHKA!!! On the flight indignation is already raging."

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The head of Russia’s Olympic Committee, Aleksander Zhukov, told a news outlet the plane had been delayed at least three hours because of “a mess in the airport.”