Habster’s take:

Bill Meltzer of NHL.com and Hockeybuzz.com writes about the RHF and Russian government passing legislation which would prohibit athletes from giving two weeks written notice to vacate their job/team. The new law comes into effect as of January 1st, 2008 and would compensate RSL teams 2/3 of the players’ salary if they break their contract terms.
Here’s hoping Bob Gainey can convince Alexei Emelin to use the 14 day notice before the deadline otherwise he’s “gone like the wind”(he signed a 2 yr contract with AK Bars Kazan and the deadline date for his NHL rights ends on June 1st, 2008). Now we understand why NHL teams were reluctant to draft many Russian player this year.

SI.com: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/hockey/nhl/07/13/world.transfers.ap/index.html
(Article about Russia not signing final draft of transfer agreement)