Philadelphia Flyers hockey player Ivan Fedotov has been detained in St. Petersburg Russia
Philadelphia Flyers’ Ivan Fedotov has been detained in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Fedotov is under contract with the Philadelphia Flyers in the NHL, but now has been detained over suspicions of “dodging the Russian Army” and has been taken to the Russian military registration and enlistment offices.
While I’m catching up on this news and trying to figure out what the hell is actually happening with Fedotov, it appears that the 25-year old Fedotov played in Moscow’s CSKA hockey club, winning the Gagarin Cup last season.
Last April, Fedotov decided that he would no longer be playing with the CSKA and instead, would be heading to America and joining the Philadelphia Flyers. It appears that according to the Russian government, terminating his contract with Moscow’s CSKA hockey club was illegal.
From there, I’m making the assumption that Fedotov was on the radar of the Russian government and was then charged with violating Article 328 of Russian Criminal Code, which states “evasion from military or alternative civilian service”, holding a penalty of up to two years in prison.
Here’s a full thread on the Ivan Fedotov incident that I stumbled across on Twitter this morning:
Pretty wild story. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how it plays out. Russia has Britney Griner in jail for “drug smuggling” charges after she brought less than a gram of an oil cart in her suitcase when entering the country. I can’t imagine what they will do to an actual Russian citizen who illegally left the Russian hockey league to join the NHL in America. No shot Putin is happy about that.
