The State Duma has passed a bill that will grant professional sports leagues greater autonomy.* *This applies to all types of sports. For example, the VTB United Basketball League, the Volleyball Super League, the Football Premier League, the Continental Hockey League, and many others. They will be able to organize competitions with teams from friendly countries independently of the position of international federations, as well as hold their own matches. “Currently, leagues are legally required to comply with unfair decisions made against them by international federations. Now we are removing this obligation at the legislative level,” explained Evgeny Revenko, a member of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture and Sports. In short, the new regulation will allow leagues to escape the oppression of international sports federations. They will become independent and capable of independently holding major tournaments. The need to develop professional sports leagues that would unite Russian and foreign clubs has long been apparent. As an example, the National Hockey League (NHL) in North America is cited. This structure is not subordinate to politically involved international federations, while being very popular and commercially successful. Currently, our country’s national teams are not allowed to participate in most major international tournaments. This situation can negatively affect the competitiveness of Russian sports. The authors of the bill state that granting additional rights to professional leagues will help maintain the high level of our athletes. For them, it will also become an opportunity to overcome the bans of international federations on admission to competitions.