Well let's not blame Alina for any of this, just as Sasha, Aliona and Zhenya Med have/had a right to leave Eteri she has the right to stay. It's hardly her fault if Eteri and Plushy fight about her or if Plushy choses to answer a question about her (tbh I feel like he should ignore those, Alina's not competing so it's really neither here nor there).
According to the interview which I finally got around to reading, the DMs between Alina and Yana were regarding the Swan Lake show which he is hoping to take to Japan. Alina is beloved there so having her as the white swan would be pretty awesome. Of course if Alina plans to return it would probably be impossible to do the show even if she wanted to. So that could be an indication that Alina does hope to compete once more.
"- As for Alina, Yana really communicates with her for a long time and they correspond. Alina was really going to leave for me a year ago, and no one lured her away. It really is.
- Did she turn to you and say that she decided to go?
- I tell you as it is, but how it happened, why do you need to know?
- This is the most interesting. This is the answer, whether they lured away or not.
- Yana wrote to her this time, because we have a show. It didn't say "go train with us".
- Well, that's understandable.
- We are the owners of our shows, while she is not in sports, we decided to propose.
- Why?
- This season she will not skate.
- In this, it is clear that, most likely, it will not.
- And we have a show not only in Russia, but also abroad. Next year we are planning to show our "Swan Lake" in Japan. Our Japanese partners, like us, would like to see Alina "White Swan" there, they wanted to invite her to ride with us, test new ice (we have a Canadian water purification system - mirror ice), Western choreographers will help in staging shows for Asia. Alina really wanted this role. Yana discussed this with her a year ago, so they invited her. When an athlete does not skate, but leads a show on television, she is not in sports, she has various other options open. She's not a serf. She has no agents, no one. She even, in my opinion, does not even know about it. We offered her to cooperate. Where is the poaching here? The bottom line is the offer to ride a show in Japan, not even in Russia (since she skates with Tanya Navka in Moscow), but in no case is there any enticement here. There is an offer to cooperate. We ride in the show and
Julia Lipnitskaya , and
Adelina Sotnikova , and Lena Radionova, and
Stolbova Ksenia , no one asked the coaches for permission.
“She's a member of another headquarters.
- Well, what's wrong with that?
- To be completely honest, you need to go to the headquarters first. Let's say Tatyana Navka invited her to the show, but she called Tutberidze first.
- Yes, I don't care who invited her. Eteri is not a manager (Zagitova). Here I have a manager, and everyone knows through whom to communicate. Either they call me directly, or they communicate through the manager. Or they call directly, and I send to the agent. Alina Zagitova has no manager.
- The position is clear.
- Well, that's all. Why should I call the coach? I'm not inviting her to Japan to compete in Japan Open."
I would like to see her in tha show.