# 2020 Rostelecom Cup

The 2020 Rostelecom Cup was the fifth event in the 2020–21 ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating, a senior-level international invitational competition series. It was held at Megasport Sport Palace in Moscow, Russia on November 20–22. Medals were awarded in the disciplines of men's singles, ladies' singles, pair skating, and ice dance.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a large number of modifications were made to the Grand Prix structure. The competitors consisted only of skaters from the home country, skaters already training in the host nation, and skaters assigned to that event for geographic reasons. However, the event became controversial after apparent COVID-19 spread among attendees led to suggestions that it had been a superspreading event.

## Entries

The International Skating Union announced the preliminary assignments on October 1, 2020.
| Country | Men | Ladies | Pairs | Ice dance |
| Armenia | | Anastasia Galustyan | | |
| Azerbaijan | Vladimir Litvintsev | Ekaterina Ryabova | | |
| Belarus | Alexander Lebedev | Viktoriia Safonova | | Viktoria Semenjuk / Ilya Yukhimuk |
| Estonia | | Eva-Lotta Kiibus | | |
| Georgia | Morisi Kvitelashvili | Alina Urushadze | | |
| Hungary | | | Ioulia Chtchetinina / Márk Magyar | Anna Yanovskaya / Ádám Lukács |
| Lithuania | | | | Allison Reed / Saulius Ambrulevičius |
| Russia | Dmitri Aliev Petr Gumennik Makar Ignatov Mikhail Kolyada Artem Kovalev Andrei Mozalev Roman Savosin Evgeni Semenenko Ilya Yablokov | Anastasiia Guliakova Alena Kostornaia Elizaveta Nugumanova Sofia Samodurova Anna Shcherbakova Alexandra Trusova Elizaveta Tuktamysheva | Kseniia Akhanteva / Valerii Kolesov Iuliia Artemeva / Mikhail Nazarychev Aleksandra Boikova / Dmitrii Kozlovskii Yasmina Kadyrova / Ivan Balchenko Anastasia Mishina / Aleksandr Galliamov Apollinariia Panfilova / Dmitry Rylov | Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva / Egor Bazin Ekaterina Mironova / Evgenii Ustenko Annabelle Morozov / Andrei Bagin Anastasia Skoptsova / Kirill Aleshin Victoria Sinitsina / Nikita Katsalapov Tiffany Zahorski / Jonathan Guerreiro |
| Ukraine | | | | Oleksandra Nazarova / Maxim Nikitin |

### Changes to preliminary assignments

| Discipline | Withdrew | Withdrew | Added | Added | Notes | Ref. |
| Discipline | Date | Skater(s) | Date | Skater(s) | Notes | Ref. |
| Men | — | — | October 9 | Alexander Lebedev | | |
| Ladies | — | — | October 9 | Anastasia Galustyan | | |
| Pairs | — | — | October 9 | Iuliia Artemeva / Mikhail Nazarychev | | |
| Pairs | October 9 | Anna Vernikov / Evgeni Krasnopolski | October 9 | Kseniia Akhanteva / Valerii Kolesov | | |
| Men | October 16 | Irakli Maysuradze | November 12 | Artem Kovalev | | |
| Ice dance | October 16 | Maria Kazakova / Georgy Reviya | October 28 | Allison Reed / Saulius Ambrulevičius | | |
| Ladies | — | — | October 28 | Eva-Lotta Kiibus | | |
| Ice dance | November 4 | Ksenia Konkina / Pavel Drozd | November 7 | Anna Yanovskaya / Ádám Lukács | | |
| Men | November 12 | Artur Danielian | November 12 | Evgeni Semenenko | Recovery from surgery | |
| Pairs | November 12 | Daria Pavliuchenko / Denis Khodykin | November 13 | Yasmina Kadyrova / Ivan Balchenko | Respiratory infection (Khodykin) | |
| Ladies | November 16 | Evgenia Medvedeva | November 16 | Elizaveta Nugumanova | Recovery from injury | |
| Ice dance | November 16 | Sofia Shevchenko / Igor Eremenko | November 16 | Ekaterina Mironova / Evgenii Ustenko | COVID-19 | |
| Ice dance | November 16 | Alexandra Stepanova / Ivan Bukin | November 16 | Viktoria Semenjuk / Ilya Yukhimuk | COVID-19 | |
| Men | November 17 | Alexander Samarin | November 17 | Ilya Yablokov | Recovery from injury | |
| Pairs | November 18 | Alina Pepeleva / Roman Pleshkov | — | — | COVID-19 (coach) | |

## Results
### Men

| Rank | Name | Nation | Total points | SP | SP | FS | FS |
| 1 | Mikhail Kolyada | Russia | 281.89 | 3 | 93.34 | 1 | 188.55 |
| 2 | Morisi Kvitelashvili | Georgia | 275.80 | 1 | 99.56 | 4 | 176.24 |
| 3 | Petr Gumennik | Russia | 268.47 | 2 | 96.26 | 6 | 172.21 |
| 4 | Andrei Mozalev | Russia | 266.69 | 6 | 86.01 | 2 | 180.68 |
| 5 | Dmitri Aliev | Russia | 265.11 | 5 | 89.62 | 5 | 175.49 |
| 6 | Evgeni Semenenko | Russia | 260.78 | 7 | 83.42 | 3 | 177.36 |
| 7 | Makar Ignatov | Russia | 260.78 | 4 | 91.82 | 7 | 168.96 |
| 8 | Roman Savosin | Russia | 250.07 | 8 | 82.35 | 8 | 167.72 |
| 9 | Ilya Yablokov | Russia | 242.52 | 10 | 79.15 | 9 | 163.37 |
| 10 | Vladimir Litvintsev | Azerbaijan | 239.79 | 9 | 81.55 | 10 | 158.24 |
| 11 | Artem Kovalev | Russia | 212.50 | 11 | 77.67 | 11 | 134.83 |
| 12 | Alexander Lebedev | Belarus | 182.30 | 12 | 62.88 | 12 | 119.42 |

### Ladies

| Rank | Name | Nation | Total points | SP | SP | FS | FS |
| 1 | Elizaveta Tuktamysheva | Russia | 223.39 | 2 | 74.70 | 1 | 148.69 |
| 2 | Alena Kostornaia | Russia | 220.78 | 1 | 78.84 | 2 | 141.94 |
| 3 | Anastasiia Guliakova | Russia | 199.03 | 4 | 70.07 | 3 | 128.96 |
| 4 | Alexandra Trusova | Russia | 198.93 | 3 | 70.81 | 4 | 128.12 |
| 5 | Elizaveta Nugumanova | Russia | 191.52 | 5 | 68.47 | 6 | 123.05 |
| 6 | Eva-Lotta Kiibus | Estonia | 186.00 | 9 | 57.88 | 5 | 128.12 |
| 7 | Sofia Samodurova | Russia | 184.81 | 6 | 68.01 | 8 | 116.80 |
| 8 | Viktoriia Safonova | Belarus | 184.57 | 7 | 64.25 | 7 | 120.32 |
| 9 | Ekaterina Ryabova | Azerbaijan | 167.85 | 8 | 58.58 | 9 | 109.27 |
| 10 | Alina Urushadze | Georgia | 150.68 | 10 | 55.86 | 10 | 94.82 |
| WD | Anastasia Galustyan | Armenia | withdrew | 11 | 52.06 | withdrew from competition | withdrew from competition |
| WD | Anna Shcherbakova | Russia | withdrew from competition | withdrew from competition | withdrew from competition | withdrew from competition | withdrew from competition |

### Pairs

| Rank | Name | Nation | Total points | SP | SP | FS | FS |
| 1 | Aleksandra Boikova / Dmitrii Kozlovskii | Russia | 232.56 | 2 | 78.29 | 1 | 154.27 |
| 2 | Anastasia Mishina / Aleksandr Galliamov | Russia | 225.80 | 1 | 79.34 | 2 | 146.46 |
| 3 | Apollinariia Panfilova / Dmitry Rylov | Russia | 210.07 | 3 | 73.84 | 3 | 136.23 |
| 4 | Yasmina Kadyrova / Ivan Balchenko | Russia | 204.87 | 4 | 70.62 | 4 | 134.05 |
| 5 | Iuliia Artemeva / Mikhail Nazarychev | Russia | 200.77 | 5 | 70.11 | 5 | 130.66 |
| 6 | Kseniia Akhanteva / Valerii Kolesov | Russia | 176.63 | 6 | 67.50 | 6 | 109.13 |
| 7 | Ioulia Chtchetinina / Márk Magyar | Hungary | 163.77 | 7 | 58.60 | 7 | 105.17 |

### Ice dance

| Rank | Name | Nation | Total points | RD | RD | FD | FD |
| 1 | Victoria Sinitsina / Nikita Katsalapov | Russia | 217.51 | 1 | 91.13 | 1 | 126.38 |
| 2 | Tiffany Zahorski / Jonathan Guerreiro | Russia | 206.91 | 2 | 84.46 | 2 | 122.45 |
| 3 | Anastasia Skoptsova / Kirill Aleshin | Russia | 199.25 | 3 | 79.75 | 3 | 119.50 |
| 4 | Elizaveta Khudaiberdieva / Egor Bazin | Russia | 193.18 | 5 | 76.10 | 4 | 117.08 |
| 5 | Annabelle Morozov / Andrei Bagin | Russia | 191.00 | 4 | 76.21 | 5 | 114.79 |
| 6 | Oleksandra Nazarova / Maxim Nikitin | Ukraine | 188.25 | 6 | 74.86 | 6 | 113.39 |
| 7 | Allison Reed / Saulius Ambrulevičius | Lithuania | 182.56 | 7 | 72.43 | 7 | 110.13 |
| 8 | Anna Yanovskaya / Ádám Lukács | Hungary | 163.65 | 8 | 61.34 | 8 | 102.31 |
| 9 | Ekaterina Mironova / Evgenii Ustenko | Russia | 152.14 | 9 | 56.47 | 9 | 95.67 |
| 10 | Viktoria Semenjuk / Ilya Yukhimuk | Belarus | 146.38 | 10 | 56.22 | 10 | 90.16 |

## COVID-19 spread and controversy

* Coaches Alexander Volkov (left) and Alexei Mishin (center)
* Coaches Dmitri Mikhailov (left) and Evgeni Plushenko (center)
Despite some precautionary measures being taken, the Rostelecom Cup's organization came under criticism for, like many other Russian domestic competitions held during the season, allowing a large audience and insufficient enforcement of mandates regarding social distancing and proper mask usage. A focal point of criticism was the decision to hold the traditional post-competition banquet where many skaters were documented not wearing masks or socially distancing at all, as well as sharing food from a communal buffet; in addition, several skaters who competed at the event were photographed in the following weeks at a birthday party for retired Russian skater Alena Leonova.
Several Russian skaters who competed at the event subsequently reported contracting the virus in the weeks afterward, including Dmitri Aliev, Alena Kostornaia, Elizaveta Tuktamysheva, Victoria Sinitsina, and Nikita Katsalapov. Estonian skater Eva-Lotta Kiibus later also reported contracting COVID-19 at the event and was still suffering effects two months later.
Irina Rodnina, a three-time Olympic pairs champion for Russia and current State Duma member, strongly criticized the handling of the Rostelecom Cup and cited it as an example of the government needing to more aggressively fine people for non-compliance. After the event, an American journalist questioned Jan Dijkema, president of the ISU, whether the Figure Skating Federation of Russia would be sanctioned over their disregard for safety protocols. Dijkema acknowledged "the regrettable news about the situation involving positive test results for COVID-19 of certain Russian Skaters [sic]," but denied the ISU taking responsibility over the situation due to the 2020–21 Grand Prix series' semi-domestic nature.