Euro gold rush

Figure skating: Yevgeny Plushchenko continued his triumphant return to the ice, claiming the men's European Championship title in Tallinn with a score of 255.39. He showed little sign of a three-year absence as he continued the build-up to his Olympic title defence next month in Vancouver. Plushchenko was joined on the podium by Yuko Kavaguti and Alexander Smirnov, who won the pairs' gold, and bronze medalist Maria Mukhortova and Maxim Trankov. In the ice dance section Oksana Dominina and Maxim Shabalin took gold, with bronze for Jana Khokhlova and Sergei Novitsky.

All eyes on all stars

Hockey: The annual KHL all-star game takes place on Saturday in Minsk, pitting a team of Russian aces - headed by SKA's Alexei Yashin - against an overseas squad led by Avangard's Jaromir Jagr. The foreign team could bring some fireworks to Belarus, as Jagr teams up with Chris Simon from Vityaz. The pair clashed recently in a league match which was abandoned after less than four minutes due to on-ice fighting. Vityaz also play a league game in Moscow this week, facing CSKA on Wednesday (7:30 pm).

CSKA win first VTB Cup

Basketball: CSKA added the VTB League title to their bulging trophy cabinet, beating UNIKS Kazan in the final in Kaunas, Lithuania. The fledgling tournament, which brings together leading sides from Russia, Ukraine and the Baltic States, has been hailed as a success by director general Andrei Shirokov, who now hopes to expand the competition to include teams from Poland, the former Yugoslavia and possibly Israel.

Russian romp

Bandy: Russia made an impressive start to the World Champions, beating Kazakhstan 14-2 in the opening game on Sunday. The six-team tournament, taking place at the Krylatskoye ice arena, also features Sweden, Finland, USA and Norway. The teams play a round-robin group phase, with the top four contesting Saturday's semi-finals. Russia's group games start at 8pm, and the final is scheduled for Sunday at 5pm.

Blatter diplomatic

Football: FIFA president Sepp Blatter made all the right noises as he met Dmitry Medvedev to discuss Russia's bid to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup. Visiting Moscow for the final of the Commonwealth Cup, Blatter was less enthusiastic than he had been at an earlier meeting with Vladimir Putin, but still expressed his disappointment that Russia had failed to qualify for this year's finals in South Africa and praised the development of the game here. On the field, a Rubin Kazan team became the first Russian side to win the Commonwealth Cup since 2005. The Tatars overwhelmed Kazakh champions Aktobe 5-2 in Sunday's final, despite fielding a youth team throughout the tournament, underlining the gulf in class between Russian and Ukrainian football and clubs from elsewhere in the former Soviet Union.