The Kontinental Hockey League was created eight years ago, when 24 teams from Russia and neighboring countries joined forces, replacing the Russian Superleague. (The Superleague, comprised of 20 teams, was a replacement for the Soviet Championship League, which fell apart in 1992, a year after the Soviet Union itself.) Although the Russian Superleague played fine hockey — by some accounts inferior only to North America’s NHL — it lacked meaty salaries, which meant its players were vulnerable to poaching. Indeed, according to the Russian sports news site Sports.ru, several years ago Putin called the NHL a “vacuum cleaner” that sucked up all of Europe’s good players.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/05/economist-explains-25
