NHL-bound Russian hockey player wants court to reverse his conscription

The lawyer for a Russian goalie who was NHL-bound before being abruptly detained outside a St. Petersburg hockey rink in July asked a court in the Leningrad region Thursday to revoke a decision by the draft board that led to the player being forced into the Russian military. 

Ivan Fedotov, 25, signed an entry-level contract in May with the Philadelphia Flyers. 

He was expected to be at the team's training camp this summer, but was seized after being suspected by Russia's military prosecutor's office of trying to evade military service and was taken to an enlistment office.

Fedotov's lawyer, Alexei Ponomarev, has filed a lawsuit against Fedotov's conscription, which the city court in Vsevolozhsk will consider this fall.

Ponomarev told Russian media that he believes the conscription is illegal because Fedotov doesn't live in St. Petersburg, where he was drafted into the army. He lives outside the city, but is registered in Moscow where he plays hockey.

"If the decision is found to be illegal, then he will be returned, regardless of whether he is already serving or not," said Ponomarev in an interview with the Russian publication Gazeta. 

Ponomarev did not respond to CBC's request for an interview.

Russian officials insist the case isn't political or personal.

On July 23, the president of the Russian Hockey Federation, Vladislav Tretiak, spoke to the Russian outlet Matchtv, and said the law is the same for everyone. 

But Russian conscription experts and outside observers say Fedotov is being punished for his NHL ambitions and desire to leave Russia at a time when its relations with the West are dismal and its political leaders are demanding unreserved loyalty and patriotism from citizens. 

"This is illegal. It violates