The 20 year old skater has recieved a fair amount of criticism from her former coach Natalia Pavlova both for ending the partnership and for moving to skate elsewhere when reportedly she told Pavlova she was quitting to focus on her studies.
"On April 6, Alexander Gorshkov received a strange letter from Iliushechkina in English. In it she asked permission to stop representing Russia and skate for France. Iliushechkina wrote she has already found a partner in France with whom she plans to compete.
Gorshkov's initial reaction was completely negative toward Iliushechkina: "We invested a lot of creative energies and resources into Iliushechkina and to just approve her request to skate for France 2 years before the Olympics is just unthinkable.
RFSF now says it will do everything possible to keep the talented athlete in the
country. They are prepared to find her a new partner. Also famous
specialist Tamara Moskvina stated she was prepared to coach the skater. It
is not clear what will happen, but if the skater refuses to skate for
Russia, probably she will have to miss two seasons before returning to competition
only after the Olympics in Sochi."
Source: Peter Murray
It's sad when promising partnerships break up in such a way. Iliuschenkina's chances of skating at the olympics would probably be higher skating for France than against the deep competition in Russia, but if beurocracy were to deprive her of an olympic chance altogether, that would be worse.
With less than 2 years to go until Sochi, Russia is building a strong team of contenders who will try restore some of the 'old order' to figure skating, but with several disappointments for their biggest names this year (like Kavaguti and Smirnov at worlds), the road to Sochi is proving to be quite a bumpy one.
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