- Ryan Parker: The Denver DA office expects to get the Semyon Varlamov case in the next couple days. They will then review and make a decision if they will file charges or not.
- Eric Macramalla: “Varlamov: charge of 3rd degree assault (zero to 2 years in prison) and 2nd degree kidnapping (2 to 6 years prison); I don’t know details of kidnapping charge; ultimately possible it may be dropped and charge of assault may stand; that may result in probation with no prison; however still many questions to be answered – everything turns on the evidence.”
- Adrian Dater: Patrick Roy said the Avs will evaluate their goalie situation/call-up today.
- Adrian Dater: Hearing that Varlamov will start on Saturday. No confirmation likely until sometime today.
- Dmitry Chesnokov: Not sure how true it is, but there is a rumor that Semyon Varlamov’s accuser may have been married before to to another hockey player.
- Sadie Gurman of the Denver Post:
“He was having fun, he was laughing,” Evgeniya Vavrinyuk, 24, said Thursday.
“He has no concept of when to stop drinking, and when he drinks he turns into an animal,” said Vavrinyuk, a Russian native who spoke to reporters through an interpreter.
“She wants to make sure he is punished for this,” Vavrinyuk said through Diana Senova, an interpreter and the fiancee of her attorney, Robert Abrams. “(Varlamov) is very arrogant and thinks he can get away with anything, that he can beat her up and no one will ever know about it.”
- Adrian Dater: There was lots of criticism of the Russian translation at the accusers press conference by Russians.
- Slava Malamud: “Vavrinyuk says police was called several times in Yaroslavl when Varlamov beat her, there are many witnesses. If so, should be easy to check”
- Slava Malamud: “Vavrinyuk says Varlamov tried to drown her in a puddle last summer, dropped a bike on her as she lay unconscious”
- Dmitry Chesnokov: “According to C.R.S. 18-3-302 a person commits second degree kidnapping when s/he seizes and carries any person from one place to another, without his or her consent and without lawful authority. This could mean (hypothetically) putting someone (like a girlfriend) in a car and driving them from one location (house) to another (airport) without their consent.”
- Slava Malamud: R-Sport is saying that Russian diplomats have been in touch with Varlamov and offered their help if he needs it. He said he didn’t require any.
- Allan Muir of Sports Illustrated: Senior Russian parliamentarian, Igor Ananskikh, thinks that Varlamov’s charges are a plot to prevent him from winning a gold medal on the Olympics in Sochi. To R-Sport:
“I’m confident of Semyon’s innocence,” Ananskikh said. “I think it is a sports and political move, as Varlamov is a candidate for the Russian national team. The main goal is to suspend him from training and games so that he loses practice and misses the Olympics.”
“As far as we know, his girlfriend complained to the police and on the basis of her complaints to arrest a man . . . I think this is totally wrong and incorrect,” he said, clearly spoiled by Russia’s legendarily high standards for prosecution of criminal behavior.