Okay, I’ve looked into the situation regarding Misha’s salary, and here is the breakdown:
First, there are two separate contracts:
•The Federation contract: They haven’t paid for five months due to a delay in their funding application, leaving Misha and his team without salaries. However, Misha *has already signed* this contract.
•The Directorate for Sports Development contract: They paid for January and February but stopped because the new contract isn't finalized. It is stalled over a clause *making a 2030 Olympic medal mandatory*, even though this contract only runs until the end of 2026.
This makes no sense—how can he guarantee a medal for an Olympics four years away? Misha asked to revise this absurd clause. Note that the contract is only for one year, not for a full four-year Olympic cycle as the Ministry of Sport claims. His request was ignored until he spoke out in the interview, sparking a social media backlash. Now the Ministry claims this is "standard practice," but standard contracts usually require medals in the *current* season, not years down the line. They are also spreading misinformation, claiming Misha refuses to sign or is unhappy with the amount, when the issue is strictly about this one clause. They’ve dragged this out for three months instead of solving it.
To be clear, Mikhail isn't complaining about delays in his Olympic medal payouts; he knows that bureaucracy takes time. However, his questions about funding for the upcoming season were completely ignored, leaving his future support uncertain.
Mikhail doesn't want mountains of gold—he just wants to skate, develop the sport in Kazakhstan, and get what he was promised. But management completely refuses to communicate.
A quick note on the Ministry’s "support": They only funded him for one year, following his silver at the 2025 World Championships. It made sense for that contract to include 2026 Olympic obligations because it was an Olympic season. Off-season contracts shouldn't have those clauses. Now that he is the Olympic Champion, officials are rushing to take credit for his victory. But Olympic champions aren't made in a year; it takes systemic training. The state only helped for one season, and only because Misha explicitly asked for it, which he mentioned in an earlier interview (
tengrinews.kz/article/xocu-a…).
Now sports officials are gaslighting the public, blaming Mikhail for a lack of communication and making him look demanding, when the issue was just *one single clause*.
Let’s also not forget how they accused him of instigating the harassment of Kazakhstani judge Nadezhda Paretskaya, when all he did was submit a four-page proposal on how to improve the Federation’s international standing. Once again, it's just a total failure to communicate on their part.