Unsurprisingly, British presenter Anne Robinson will not be fronting the programme when it travels to Russia.

The BBC has also sold all 390 episodes of The Tweenies to state owned station ORT, and the pre-school children's show will be dubbed into Russian.

The Weakest Link has now been sold to 70 countries around the world by the BBC's commercial arm, BBC Worldwide.

The most high-profile sale was to the American network NBC which took the bold decision to keep Robinson as the host.

She was launched on the American prime-time audiences in a blaze of publicity.

The Teletubbies have already proved a success in Russia

The Russian version will take the same format and will see a female presenter with a similar caustic wit take the helm.

The show's catchphrase "you are the weakest link - goodbye" will translate as "ti samaya slabaya svyaz'! Do svidaniya".

ORT bought the rights to the Teletubbies last November, which translates as Telpuziki, and could be seen by a total of 200 million viewers.

Its commercial director Adrei Balashov said: "This new agreement marks a milestone in our strong relationship with the BBC.

"Russian audiences will welcome these two new series from the BBC."

Rupert Gavin, chief executive of BBC Worldwide, said: "Tweenies and The Weakest Link are two vastly different properties.

"However, in the space of a few months, BBC Worldwide has launched both programmes to huge acclaim around the globe."

The BBC is currently negotiating deals to export the quiz to China and India.