My thanks to Japers' Rink blogger Tuvan Hillbilly for translating the following article:

http://www.sovsport.ru/gazeta/article-item/337521

In a conversation with a Sovietsky Sport correspondent Pavel Lysenkov, KHL president and St. Petersburg SKA head Alexander Medvedev commented on the scandalous situation in which Canadian defenseman Joel Kwiatkowski, who has a two-year contract with SKA, signed a contract with the Atlanta Thrashers of the NHL.

"WE AREN'T FAMILIAR WITH SLAVEHOLDING RULES"

"We assumed that the KHL and NHL would honor a gentleman's agreement" said Alexander Medvedev. "Therefore we didn't sign a single player having an NHL contract. We didn't even make any offers, even though agents for a whole host of world-class hockey players themselves came to the KHL clubs with the desire to enter into contract negotiations. But we didn't follow after them, because we were mindful of the general agreement."

"Then we encountered the puzzling situation with Shirokov and Parshin. But we believed that Vancouver and Colorado sufficiently understood that the sporting rights to these players belonged to CSKA.  The only way to bring these players into the NHL is to come to an agreement in accordance with KHL regulations."

"Please notice that, unlike in the NHL, we have a procedure for dissolution of active contracts. We aren't familiar with the slaveholding rules which are applied to NHL players. We understand that there are a lot of different circumstances-personal, family, medical..."

"And now, to our surprise, we found out that Atlanta has, beyond any shadow of a doubt, signed a player who already has a two-year contract with SKA. And Atlanta didn't even see fit to consult with either the KHL or the St. Petersburg team!"

"We believe that this is a flagrant violation of every agreement. The International Federation has already been informed of this. There will be a meeting of the IIHF in Switzerland on 15 July and this issue will also be discussed there."

"What do we do now? Let's wait until July 15. Depending upon the position taken by the International Federation, we will announce our further actions. We are not going to announce in advance what tools we have at our disposal. I'll just make one comment: the KHL considers itself part of the IIHF system based on the assumption that the interests of our league will be adequately protected. If this doesn't happen, then we will be forced to consider the issue of a new status for the KHL."

Do you mean that our league might leave the IIHF?

"Let's stick with what I said. I have already had a very good conversation with Mr. Fazel (IIHF President. - ed.), and he is also surprised by what happened. We agreed to discuss the Kwiatkowski situation in detail at the July meeting."

It's not just Atlanta. Even on the NHL official site they are saying that Joel Kwiatkowski is an unrestricted free agent. They don't make any note of his contract with SKA!

"From the NHL side this is an extremely cynical statement."

"THE CONTRACT CAN ALWAYS BE BOUGHT OUT"

Why did you decide to sign a contract with Kwiatkowski? What role did you see him in with SKA?

"Right now it doesn't make any sense to discuss Kwiatkowski's on-ice strengths. First we need to wait for the IIHF meeting."

Has anyone personally asked the Canadian why he signed two contracts?

"I don't have any information on that. SKA management will contact him."

Can you explain exactly how a KHL player can dissolve an active contract?

"The league provides exactly that right in the standard contract. There must be compensation paid depending upon the status of the hockey player. As I understand it, for a player like Kwiatkowski the compensation would be one-third of remaining sum of his contract. That is, one third of the amount which he could earn for two years. Since the first of the year the compensation can be paid by either the hockey player himself or his new employer."

"I hope that this issue will be resolved in the shortest possible time. I would advise Atlanta to not seek the fame of Herostratus, who committed arson to immortalize his name in history (Herostratus set fire to the temple of Artemis so that people would remember his name.- ed.)."

I read on the internet the furor that this news has caused... The fans are calling for a "hunting season".  A powerful response would be to offer Ilya Kovalchuk a contract for $20 million per year, so that Atlanta would long regret the loss of their leader.

"Once again, right now I'm going to keep to myself those countermeasures which the KHL might take. But we will use all possible measures to keep the interests of our league, clubs and fans from being infringed."

"If the NHL sees that they don't have enough players to fill out the teams and decides to breach a gentleman's agreement...  You can make an attempt to fight with the KHL this way, but this would be bad for all of hockey."

"Even if players' agents encourage players to sign double contracts, we would absolutely point out to the IIHF and NHL that such irresponsible policies cannot be tolerated."

Maybe Atlanta didn't know that Kwiatkowski had a KHL contract?

"The transfer of this defenseman from Severstal to SKA was widely publicized. Everyone knows what they are doing."

"Attempting to show that Russian labor laws are weak and inadequate is inane. We have provisions for compensation in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation, and the amounts are determined by the regulatory documents of the league. If somebody wants to dispute this method in international courts, I would not recommend it. Any attempt is doomed to defeat."

"LET THE NHL JOIN THE IIHF"

In May the IIHF congress met in Bern, and they adopted a decision that the signing of contracts with players having active contracts with other clubs would be severely punished, up to removing the team from any tournament played under the auspices of the IIHF and disqualification of the player. The signing of any contract would be based upon an international transfer card. But this is a one-way street! The NHL itself doesn't require any such card, so only the KHL teams would be punished.

"Of course! Back in May when they voted for this decision, they explained to us that they were co-opting the best practices for conflict regulation from FIFA. But they forgot one thing-in football all countries and regions are in FIFA, and the rules apply to everyone."

"But in hockey it turns out that this will apply only to the European leagues and will have no effect on the NHL. This situation is intolerable. So let the NHL join the IIHF.  Otherwise you can't give the NHL special status, applying the rigid specter of sanctions (only) for leagues and federations in the IIHF system."

"Legally, this seems two-sided. As for the sporting point of view, as you so aptly put it, the NHL has a paved road with all the services along the highway. The other direction is full of potholes and ruts. But we're not going to take going down these country roads any longer."

The scandal with Kwiatkowski seems to be exactly like the "Radulov affair" in reverse...

"I disagree. Everybody's already talked this thing to death but I'll explain it one more time. When Salavat Yulaev signed a three year contract with Radulov, the Ufa club was not aware of any verbal or especially any written agreements between our leagues."

"We had only agreed verbally at that time that we should sign such a transfer agreement. But after that the NHL took a step back. I am more than sure that the Radulov matter was used as a reason for not signing even an intermediate agreement. Otherwise, the one-way highway of the NHL would have ceased to exist. A system of parity and cooperation would have been established."

"THE KHL IS AWAITING A LOT OF INTERESTING PLAYERS"

Now, after the "Kwiatkowski affair", what is your evaluation on the prospect of relations between the KHL and NHL? If you were able to agree on everything and form a general data base, such conflicts simply wouldn't exist!

"Yes, everything would be very simple. If there was a conflict, then until it was resolved either through bilateral negotiations or legal procedure, the player would be forbidden to play in either the NHL or the KHL."

"But when we made that proposal, the NHL and NHLPA sang in chorus that they would never agree to that, and that hockey players should be able to freely build their careers in an overseas league. Like they say, everyone is equal, but some more equal than others..."

"We don't need such paradoxes. Either we truly begin normal cooperation with the NHL, which would benefit the entire hockey world, or somebody wants to see how such a conflict would develop. I think club leaders and the league as a whole would quickly notice an imminent decline in the quality of the game in the NHL due to a sharp reduction in the influx of European players."

Especially for this the KHL needs to do one thing: raise the limit on the number of foreign players.

"There are some different variations, but as we agreed, we won't discuss them now.  But it would be a shame if people forget the contributions made by Europeans, especially Russians, in the commercial and sporting success of the NHL."

One final question on the building of the SKA team-is it already completed or can the fans expect to see some new big names? You have to potentially fill the loss of the aforementioned Kwiatkowski. You have a hole in your team.

"Well the trade window is open until 15 January of next year. I think that a lot of interesting players will show up in all of the KHL clubs. The midseason for this has just started..."