Alexander Povetkin, the quietest of Russian bears, slips verbal punches about his president – not to mention the controversial reinstatement of his country’s anti-doping agency – with the sort of deftness that could serve him well against Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium on Saturday night.

He was particularly light on his feet when asked on Thursday if Vladimir Putin – the global villain du jour – had sent him supportive sentiments before challenging Britain’s unbeaten four-belt world heavyweight champion. All in all, Povetkin was having no Russian away-day in Salisbury.

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“Our president loves sport,” he said. “He pays a lot of attention to sport. He pays a lot of attention to youth sport and he is an athlete himself [a karate black belt]. He’s always training. I’m sure he is going to watch the fight. The Russian Olympic team were invited over to the Kremlin [after the 2004 Games in Athens, where Povetkin won super-heavyweight gold] and he congratulated all of us.”

An accomplished kick-boxer before taking up boxing, Povetkin might also have added he once used to train alongside his president.

With quiet dignity and good humour, Povetkin – who has beaten two doping bans – said of the international row building over Wada’s decision on Thursday to lift the three-year sanction on Rusada: “Even before the reinstatement announcement came into place I saw a lot of changes because the Russian anti-doping management system …

At which point, the boxer’s interpreter and his minder chipped in with a combined interpretation of an untangling distraction to the business at hand. “They request every day to know where the athletes are. And they test all the athletes over and over again. Alexander has been submitted to this testing on numerous occasions.

“Their main purpose is to see that all the athletes in Russia, no matter what sport it is, are clean.”

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So, as Winston Churchill might have observed, the situation was “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma”.

To many in boxing, Povetkin is just that. Inoffensive, polite and softly spoken, he has stopped and badly beaten up 24 of his 35 opponents after reluctantly turning professional in 2005, and has lost only to Wladimir Klitschko, on points in Moscow five years ago. The last time a British audience got to see him up close he knocked Liverpool’s David Price unconscious on the undercard of Joshua’s defence of his titles against Joseph Parker in Cardiff in March.

He is 39, and it is reasonable to assume his career will not linger much longer, but he is eminently capable of derailing the Joshua journey towards showdowns with Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury.

“Perhaps there is more responsibility put on his shoulders,” he said of Joshua, whom he admires. “There’s a saying in Russia, you feel like the walls are crushing you in. Psychologically, I’m very stable. I don’t feel under any pressure. I’m very calm and I think Anthony is the same.

“There was a lot more pressure on me for the Klitschko fight because, when you’re at home, the walls are even more closing in on you. So you do feel a lot of pressure – more then than I am feeling now.”

Povetkin jumps out of planes and helicopters in a parachute for relaxation – although he has given away his motorbike because he considers it too dangerous – and spends much of his time back in Chekhov – named after the Russian writer – “helping the young people of Russia. We get them away from drugs, from alcohol, from tobacco. We get them into sports. Most important, we try to make gentle and intelligent people out of them.”

Povetkin has endured. He never wanted to be a professional fighter but here he is: an enigma of sorts, a puzzle for Joshua to solve on Saturday night.