I'm guessing they have an arrangement like C/L used to have - work with him in the off season, work with Kustarova at other times. It helps to keep costs down, & cuts down on the amount of travelling they have to do - otherwise after SA they will go Novi->Paris->Novi->Saransk->Novi->Hopefully Ostrava... and that's not even accounting for any Challenger events, which I still hope they will do after Paris to keep sharp & improve their ranking. Igor said to people at Nebelhorn that he was still working with them, Elena said at test skates that they were giving the feedback to him and discussing the plans for managing Ruslan's knee problem. It would be very weird to have gone from Novi to test skates and then suddenly decide to stay in Russia - and none of the journalists have picked up on a coach change like they did with S/K, so it seems like this is all planned.
When they moved last year, they said that Kustarova would still be involved with their work. I guess we'll see more at SA when we can see if Igor contributing in the practice sessions or appearing in the K&C. But I don't think it's a disaster if they aren't in Novi full time. They've had 6 months with him, getting the foundation and structure of the programs, and we've seen in the little clips so far what a difference that has made. During the season he & his coaching staff are all over the place travelling to events because he has so many teams, so having a coach during the season that is 100% focused on polishing the work and preparing them for competitions without having other high level teams as a distraction isn't such a bad idea.
