That isn't what she said. The Itar-Tass article simply paraphrased the interview from fsrussia what she said and added their own interpretation This article shows exactly what both said to fsrussia.
http://sporteveryday.info/pages/vik...higanshin-vokrug-nashey-paryi-nikakih-sluhov/
All Viktoria said was that she was that around their pair, there are no rumors. She didn't say she is staying with Ruslan or that there is no split. Just that she wasn't paying attention to gossip. Kustarova in her interview later said they heard rumors before worlds and decided to figure out if the rumors were true by getting one of the tour managers to come to the rink with contracts. Ruslan signed but Viktoria didn't and they knew then it was true. Viktoria then came to confess the next day.
And if Ruslan signed a contract you'd think he'd know for certain he was doing a tour. But in his comments to fsrussia, you can tell he was vague about what they are doing after worlds.
Thanks for interview, I didn’t see it before.
But this was plaing with words by Victoria. Everybody knew what was journalist asking for and Victoria answered. Yes, she didn’t say exactly: ”We will never split, I don’t know anything about me skating with Nikita!”…but she answered in way that everybody explained it that there is no split situation. She is really smart like Nikita described, but not very frank.
And frankly I think that both Ruslan and coaches were surprised with her answering like this. I think that this was the reason why Alexeeva commented later that she knows nothing about the split and the couple will stay together. After World FD there was no reason why to keep split in secrecy, but Nikita didn’t want to comment and Vika answered in way that everybody explained it in way that there is no split. So I guess that both Ruslan and coaches thought that after so successful 7th place finish of S&Z Vika and Nikita changed mind. Why they would be quiet then? But of course the reality was pretty different, but nor Vika either Nikita were not able to say it straightly without any soubtfulnis.
(Don’t forget that the tour contract was signed after Olympics where they finished on a dissapointing 16th place, while they finished 7th at World Chamionships – which is wonderful result for first competition there – except Virtue & Moir, Davis & White and Ilinykh & Katsalapov – nobody finished so high at first World Championhips).
But this is past, it is over.
I am curious how will European Championships look like…unfortunately I think that Lena and Ruslan will have the most difficult position from all medal contenders. They are ranked like 16th European couple there thanks to World Standings and if the old rule about starting order is true….then all couples (looking at World Standings) are divided into two half and from better half top 10 couples skate in the last two groups. The rest from the better half skate in third best group. The worse half couples skate in opening groups.
So we have 30 dance couples here -
http://www.isuresults.com/events/cat00008363.htm , Lena and Ruslan are 16th in World Standings from European couples. 15 couples with the highest score at World Standings will skate in Group 4-6, top 10 couples will skate in Group 5-6. The lower 15 couples will be in Group 1-3, they draw starting order without any other rules, so any couple can draw from number 1 to 15. So with bad luck Lena and Ruslan may be opening the whole competition.
But it is said that what doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger….so I expect they will fight hard for getting appropriate placements.
