Yashin Chooses Yaroslavl

[Keni Morgan]

Former New York Islanders captain Alexei Yashin has signed a one-year contract with Lokomotiv (Yaroslavl). The 33-year-old center forward was put out of a job last month after the Islanders bought out the last four years of his $87.5 million, 10-year contract. Since being traded to New York by the Ottawa Senators in 2001, Yashin had been one of Islanders' top players, but he has slumped in as of late, scoring just 18 goals in 58 games last season. Yashin has captained Russia at several world ice hockey championships and also represented his country in the last three Winter Olympics. Yashin is the highest profile player to return to the Superleague since Russia's refusal to sign a new transfer agreement with the NHL two months ago.

[Keni Morgan]

British Airways has officially apologized to former NHL star Pavel Bure, who filed a R20 million ($770,000) lawsuit in a Moscow court, alleging damages to his reputation. Last October, the retired NHL right wing, known as the "Russian Rocket," was scheduled to fly on BA875 form Moscow to London, when the pilot of the aircraft allegedly mistook Bure for a Russian soccer fan, and refused to allow him on the flight. In a statement, British Airways said it realized how unpleasant the incident was for Bure, saying that the star was removed from the plane for security reasons, following an incident the day before involving Russian soccer fans.

On October 30, 2006, British police arrested six passengers for being drunk after BA875 from Moscow landed in London. The six were Russian soccer fans going to London for the Arsenal CSKA (Moscow) match. The drunken fans smoked and were rude to the other passengers throughout the flight.

[Keni Morgan]

In July, Russia reached the final of tennis' Fed Cup for the third time in four years, defeating the U.S. team 3-2 on its home turf, in Stowe, Vermont. Coach Shamil Tarpischev, who was coaching his 100th team tennis match (he also captains the Russian Davis Cup team), struggled with visa problems, barely arriving at the match before it began, but nonetheless set a powerful lineup. The U.S. had Venus Williams (straight from her Wimbeldom victory), but none of the other U.S. players offered serious competition. After Williams won both her singles matches, the semifinal came down to the doubles rubber, where Nadya Petrova and Yelena Vesnina played like a smoothly oiled machine, defeating Venus Williams and Lisa Raymond 7:5, 7:6. Russia will now take on Italy (which defeated France) in Moscow on September 15-16. "We will have a better chance against Italy," Tarpishchev said, "than we had against the United States."

Good luck in Moscow September 15-16!