Police in St. Petersburg detained Russian national hockey team and CSKA goalkeeper Ivan Fedotov on suspicion of dodging the army draft, Baza reports. In April, Fedotov said he intended to move to the United States to play for the Philadelphia Flyers - he had signed a contract with the club.
Fedotov is to be taken to the military enlistment office, Baza writes.
Earlier, Fontanka wrote that St. Petersburg criminal investigators began looking for Fedotov near the Arena-Kupchino sports complex on Dimitrova Street (despite a 45-day vacation, it is believed he will train individually) and near a couple of private apartments in St. Petersburg.
Baza says the military prosecutor asked the Saint Peterburg police to find Fedotov. «There are sufficient grounds to consider Fedotov a draft dodger,» Baza quotes a source in the prosecutor's office as saying.
«As for the military prosecutor, the logic is clear: Ivan Fedotov is a member of the CSKA Ice Hockey Club, i.e. formally he’s a military serviceman,» Fontanka writes.
The journalists also found out that Fedotov recently told the coaching staff and the management of CSKA that he was no longer willing to play for the club and wanted to leave Russia. «Thus, he is arbitrarily and illegally terminating his contract with the hockey club,» says a source familiar with the situation.
«Based on the actions of the St. Petersburg criminal investigators, this story is difficult to gauge outside its political context,» Fontanka writes.