After about a week of back and forth sniping in the international sports press, the NHL and Russia's Kontinental Hockey League have come to an agreement to respect each other's contracts. The following comes from a statement issued by the KHL Press Service in Moscow:

At a meeting on July 15, representatives of all KHL clubs and senior executives reached unanimous agreement to impose a moratorium on signing NHL players, with the exception of free agents.

The KHL clubs and executives support the decisions made in a meeting on July 10 in Zurich among senior executives of the KHL, IIHF and the NHL and stated in a special Memorandum of Agreement .

The KHL is acting under the assumption that the Moratorium shall be honored by all Parties and shall be valid from July 10, 2008 until signing of the Memorandum of Agreement no later than August 1, 2008.

So the next questions becomes, what does this mean for Alexander Radulov, the wayward Nashville Predators winger who announced last week that he was bolting North America with one year remaining on his contract to play for Salavat Ulaef, the champions of the final season of the Russian Super League?

I just got off the phone with Shawn McBride, the KHL's North American spokesman, and he confirmed for me that Radulov's contract, which McBride said was signed on July 5, will be upheld by the KHL. Expect to see Radulov playing in Ufa next season. Both the Predators and the NHL were unavailable for comment at this time.

UPDATE: Just received the following written statement from NHL spokesman Frank Brown: "We have communicated to the KHL that we fully expect it to respect Alexander Radulov's valid and binding contractual obligation to the Nashville Predators for the 2008-09 season. Today's announcement does not change our position in that regard."

And from Predators PR guy Kevin Wilson: "Nothing has changed ... [the situation is] totally in the hands of the IIHF and the NHL. We're waiting for them to see what they're going to do before we take any action."