Kirill Elatontsev Leaves Lokomotiv-Kuban Without Authorization – Is He Trying to Go to the NCAA?

A major dispute is brewing in Russian basketball between PBC Lokomotiv-Kuban and one of its players, Kirill ELATONTSEV.

The 23-year-old center is under a long-term FIBA-standard contract with the Krasnodar club, but he is trying to terminate it with no reason. ELATONTSEV has left the team without authorization , and the club has currently lost track of his whereabouts. He has cut off all contact, citing illness as the reason for his absence.

Reports have previously surfaced claiming that ELATONTSEV was cleared out to play in the NCAA.

The situation was commented on by Alexey Pegushin, Vice President of Sports for PBC Lokomotiv-Kuban: “We were really counting on ELATONTSEV. He signed a new long-term contract just last year, and he was a central part of our roster strategy. We saw him as a future starter. Due to injuries, he didn’t end up playing a single official game for us this season. In early November, he played one game in a non-official tournament, and then just stopped showing up—he cut off all communication with the club and stopped training with the team. We have reason to believe he has left Krasnodar for another city. The first we heard about any of this was from press reports claiming he’d been cleared to play in the NCAA.”