In what was surely merely a formality, Andrey Vatutin has had the title of “CSKA Moscow club president” added to his existing position of CEO. This career move represents the crowing glory for Vatutin, who has worked his way up from press officer with the Russian Basketball Federation in 1997, to success with Ural Great as assistant CEO, through an assistant GM role with Team Russia in 2001-02, and onto a deputy CEO spot in 2002 to begin his climb up the CSKA Moscow ladder.
As the entire organization seemingly undergoes tweaking from roster to management, Vatutin takes over for Sergey Kushchenko, the 2005-06 Euroleague Club Executive of the Year universally credited with morphing CSKA into the basketball powerhouse we all know and love/hate today. Kushchenko announced in July that he would be taking over as Russian Biathlon Federation president, necessitating his retirement from duties with the basketball club.
(Euroleague.net) – Andrey Vatutin has been chosen as CSKA Moscow’s new president, the club announced Friday. Vatutin replaces Sergey Kushchenko as club president. Vatutin was elected by CSKA’s board and also retains his position as the club’s CEO – which he had previously been promoted to in 2007. Kushchenko and Vatutin had led Ural Great to back-to-back Russian League titles in 2001 and 2002 before the late Alexander Gomelskiy persuaded them to join an ambitious project to make CSKA one of the best teams in Europe. In their seven seasons working for CSKA, Kushchenko and Vatutin led the club to seven Russian League titles and as many Euroleague Final Fours.
