Even people who don't care about sports should keep an eye on the charges by Moscow's CSKA hockey club that the National Hockey League is stealing Russian players.


Valery Gushin, the team's general manager, has a series of largely valid complaints about how the North American league is operating in Russia, chiefly based on a contract the Russian Ice Hockey Federation signed in haste last September.


CSKA, the Central Army team, was the best franchise in Soviet sports history, the flagship team for the amazingly successful ice hockey program in the Soviet Union.


But with the arrival of free enterprise, Russia's best and brightest hockey players -- like those in so many other walks of life -- headed West, lured by potential millions to be made.


First there was chaos. In 1989, players were for sale to whatever NHL team had drafted them and prices were negotiable. No one even knew if Soviet player contracts were valid.


Everyone agreed that an international contract to control transfers was a good idea: It guaranteed the NHL access to the players, it guaranteed the Russian teams money in return, and it preempted lengthy trans-Atlantic lawsuits over the players.


But the Russian federation was preoccupied with an internal power struggle and when a contract was finally signed, it turned out to be a bad deal for Russian hockey.


NHL teams pay a flat transfer fee for the privilege of signing Russian players -- no matter how many they sign or how good they are. Naturally, the North American teams are taking advantage of the deal to sign everyone they think may help them. Such is the nature of competitive sports. But his is not the first time the NHL has been charged with biting the hand that feeds it.


In the early 1980s, Sweden fended off a similar problem by signing domestic sponsors capable of keeping at least the mid-level players at home, if not the stars.


But as more and younger Russian players head West -- including dozens who are too young to sign professional contracts -- the talent level in Russia is rapidly getting to the point that it will be hard to get sponsors at all.


Renegotiating a fair price for the players the NHL signs would go a long way toward ensuring the continued health of international hockey.


Why should this be of interest to nonsports fans? Because the Russian press is largely reporting the situation as good-versus-evil, us-versus-them.


And the idea that CSKA is helpless against the heartless NHL only reinforces the worst stereotypes of rampant capitalism being bad for Russia.