Defender Voinov, fighter with his wife

The hockey player, who beat his wife, voluntarily left the United States to Russia, where he was met very warmly

Defender of the Los Angeles Kings hockey team , 25-year-old Russian Vyacheslav Voinov "was entrusted with" to Russia. This summer, he spent several months in an American prison after he pleaded guilty of beating Marta Voinova’s wife, and for release for several more weeks - in the immigration insulator, where he made the final decision to return to his homeland. There, Wojanov was accepted with open arms - it is possible that soon he will enter the ice as part of the Russian national team.

Vyacheslav Voinov froze his six -year $ 25 million contract, without waiting for a former club for him. After all, the act of a hockey player, who entailed a imprisonment, violated the conditions under which Wojanov was provided with a working visa in the United States. Voinov’s case is largely precedent in regarding the stories with family violence among professional athletes in the United States.

In 2000, the goalkeeper of the Dallas Stars hockey team Ed Belfort, while drunk, began to pester his companion in the hotel. Then he hit two policemen, whom she called, and on the way from the hotel to the station, by American standards, the most difficult misconduct made: he offered the guards of order a bribe of many millions of dollars to let him go. Nevertheless, Belfort got off with a slight fright: he pleaded guilty at the trial, apologized and was convicted of two years and three thousand dollars of a fine. In 2002, the defender of the Los Angeles Kings Joe Korvo sought a visitor to the cafe, and after he was put up from the institution, he returned and inflicted several blows, including her legs. His punishment was also very mild: removal from the game for three matches and a mandatory visit to psychological seminars by self -control.

There are many similar examples. But the harsh punishment for family violence and encroachments on the safety of women in the United States has long been universal. It turns out that in America, as in many other countries, celebrities forgive what “ordinary mortals” are punished for? Here is the opinion of one of the leading American sports management and sports specialists, professor at Uta Berry University University:

-To some extent, this is so-if only because a famous and rich person can afford a lawyer who will simply not afford an ordinary citizen. However, cases of frank trial of people are well -known and with ties in the United States are inconceivable. In the presence of significant evidence of guilt, no one will succeed in the court and the most high -ranking individual will receive the same period as a simple layman for the same crime. The assault that the sport stars allow themselves is being investigated, they are attracted to the answer, but if brilliant lawyers find the circumstances or information that makes them doubt the evidence represented by the accusation, then you will not be dismissed either. Hence the soft sentences. And here is the reverse example: the other day, businessman Stuart Parnel, the former owner of Peanut Corporation, which produces peanut oil, was sentenced to 28 years in prison for allowing the receipt of a product infected with salmonella. Given that Parnel is in sixty, this is actually a life sentence.

Brilliant lawyers find mitigating circumstances or information forcing them to doubt the evidence

- Okay, now let's move on to hockey, to the NHL. Two cases, both "Russians". The first is recent, with Vyacheslav Voinov. The second - two years ago with the goalkeeper of Colorado Avalanche Semyon Varlamov. According to the indictment, he brutally treated his girlfriend, 24-year-old model Evgenia Vavrinyuk: he beat her, dragged her by the hair, knocked on the floor and pressed his feet on his chest. The leadership of the hockey league said: we trust the club, no matter what the club decides regarding Varlamov before the trial, so be it. The club decided: we will not remove the seeds, let him play. He was released on bail of 5 thousand dollars. Subsequently, the prosecutor's office came to the conclusion that she could not undeniably prove his guilt, therefore the matter was handed over to the archive. In the case of Vyacheslav Voynov, even before the incorporation of all charges of the NHL, without waiting for the verdict of the team leadership, decided: to remove the game, albeit with maintaining the content. His deposit amounted to 50 thousand dollars. And this despite the fact that the victim, Marta Voinova, refused to ask the court with a security letter prohibiting her husband to approach her home and even call her on the phone. Apparently, Vyacheslav himself took to the Marta hospital. Nevertheless, the Russian received completely from the judicial system and from the immigration authorities, which actually forced him for self -deportation. Where does such differences in the affairs of Varlamov and Voinov come from?

- inconsistency in the decisions of the league and individual clubs does not surprise me. The difference, as it seems to me, is next. If we are talking about the beatings inflicted by a member of their own team, then they get rid of the brawl off immediately, without any fluctuations. If it concerns Mordoboy against the enemy team players, the guilty will be punished by moderate gravity: striker Minnesota North Stars Dino Siserelli became the first player in the history of the NHL in 1988, which was taken by the police right at the stadium for being beaten by the opponent with a club. He spent a day in prison, was fined a thousand dollars and removed from the game for 10 matches. About 50 years ago, fights were allowed both in American football and basketball, but then the leadership of the corresponding leagues, apparently fearing for the safety of their stars, which became very expensive, fist battles were categorically forbidden: for them, Drachuna was threatened with disqualification. In hockey, the bosses are still connected to the hobby, wanting to grab part of the fans.

But back to the difference in punishments. For drug smuggling, the player has long been supposed to be disqualified: in 1989, Bob Tempra from Detroit Red Wings for this crime was expelled from the NHL. Let's go further: for alcohol abuse or household use of NHL drugs will punish the hockey player. Severe, like the Los Angeles Kings Kings Kings, Mark Richards, if the quality of his game is irreparably suffering from detrimental habits, or easily - if he lends itself to re -education, as it was with the former goalkeeper of Edmonton Oilers Nikolai Khabibulin. He served 30 days in prison for driving a car in a drunken form, after which he was restored in the team. Be that as it may, the decision, what to do with a problem player, a club or league is made regardless of a court order. They come only from professional expediency. With regard to family violence, until recently, there was an attitude that it does not cause fundamental harm to either the NHL reputation, the club, or the player, and therefore it should be treated pragmatically, react to a minimum, if there is reason to believe that the case does not reach the court, or the defendant will not be found guilty. Otherwise, well, some disciplinary measures will have to be applied to the offender. The story with Barlamov wildly outraged the public, and it is possible that in the current setting of wars, he was elected to the role of a sacred victim. By and large, however, the NHL has no reason not to remove hockey players suspected of beating friends or wives from the game, even before the trial, if the evidence in a first approximation indicates their guilt.

- By the way, in the last collective agreement of the NHL with hockey players it is stated that the league has the right to remove the player from speeches during the criminal investigation, provided that the relief could harm the league and its reputation. Does the leadership of the League and Club owners have the same attitude towards players from North America and Europe? Europeans are not punished more strictly?

NHL does not discriminate against players by nationality

- I will not risk giving one hundred percent guarantee, but, as far as I know, the NHL does not discriminate against players in nationality. Former striker Los Angeles Kings Slovak Zhigmund Palffi was arrested in 2003 on suspicion of beating the bride, but there was no criminal case due to a lack of evidence. Barlamov’s friend Evgenia Vavrinyuk brought the words allegedly dropped by Semyon that, if the story in Russia, he would have beaten it even stronger, but even the hyperplite correlation of the California prosecutors did not take into account this statement. Vavrinyuk also said that she decided to expose Varlamov only because of the faith in the enlightenment and consciousness of the Americans, in another country she would consider this venture hopeless. Friend Barlamov, defender of the Blue Jackets team Fedor Tyutin responded to this: "American laws are entirely on the side of women, so they run to the police to complain about men with all sorts of trifles." This remark had no negative consequences for Tyutin. Fans and owners of clubs do not care where the player of their team comes from: if he plays well, they accept him. By the way, about Voinov: rumors reached me that Los Angeles Kings played all this party with deportation in order to terminate the too generous contract with the Russian. But I have not heard any serious evidence of these rumors.

- The episodes of family violence among American athletes have recently become more frequent. Why? Or are they just talking about them more?

- The society has become more open and began to talk more frankly about the problem of family violence. It seems to me that objectively these phenomena have become fewer, and there is more talk about them, therefore the feeling that it happens everywhere. But this is not so: before, the scale of family violence was larger. In a number of states, the beating of the spouse was not at all qualified as a crime. Now the situation has improved, but the ideal is still very far away, ”says Professor David Berry .

His words are confirmed by another recent example from the life of hockey players. Forward Chicago Black Hawks Patrick Kane was detained in August on suspicion of rape and released on bail at the time of the investigation. The team’s leadership shares the opinion of lawyers that prosecutors will not collect enough evidence to bring Kane an official charge. With the opinion of the club authorities, the NHL agreed. The Black Hawks star continues to participate in training camps and play for the team in friendly matches.

As for Vyacheslav Voinov, his return to Russia turned out to be, contrary to specific circumstances, almost triumphal. The hockey player, by the way, arrived with his family - so, apparently, the affected spouse has no more complaints about him. Voinov is going to play for one of the clubs of the Continental Hockey League (KHL). The leadership of the Chelyabinsk "tractor", which owns the rights to Voinov in the KHL, said that he would be happy to see him as part of the team. However, as the chairman of the council of this club Ivan Senichev told reporters today, the issue will be finally resolved after a possible meeting of the player with the president of Tractor, the Chelyabinsk governor Boris Dubrovsky.

Everyone supported me

Meanwhile, the St. Petersburg SKA showed interest in the services of Voinov. The hockey player himself is now trained on the basis of the Russian team in Novogorsk near Moscow under the leadership of the head coach of the national team Oleg Znark . Earlier, even before the return of Voinov from the United States, the support of the colleague was expressed by the captain of the national team Ilya Kovalchuk . No one has completely forgot about the reason for the forced return of the player from the NHL in Russia, no one expresses any doubts and claims of the moral and ethical nature against Voinov. The hockey player himself is full of gratitude : "I knew that the Russian people related to hockey are devoted to their work, but when it all happened, I was very impressed. Everyone supported me. Such words give me strength to move forward and turn this page." According to Voinov, his family now "does not read the press to stay away from this."

Nevertheless, the assault of Vyacheslav Voinov can have negative consequences for him - and not only in the form of financial losses associated with an interrupted contract in the NHL. Roman Rotenberg, vice-president of the Russian Hockey Federation , does not exclude that Wojnov, if it is included in the Russian national team, may have problems with obtaining a visa to Canada, where in 2016 a tournament for the World Cup should be held. “Therefore, we will discuss this issue separately. This is already politics, I would not like to politicize this process. Of course, everyone would like to fly to Canada to the World Cup, including Glory, to me, all the rest. This is a question that we do not know the answer today,” Rotenberg, who himself is in the lists of persons, against which the US sanctions were introduced - in connection with the annexation of the Crimea and the aggression of Russia in relation to Ukraine.