Not to mention the money was pretty good in Russia at the time, too.Right because every player who has their family's best interests in mind would turn down contracts to make less money because he's worried about a soap opera? What bizarro world do you come from? He signed a long term contract....1 year in he started worrying about his family noticing that they may not be happy in America (New Jersey most likely) and thought it was best to make the move back to Russia after giving them a couple more seasons to see if they could adjust.
Try to spin it any way you want but dem da facts.
Otherwise, his family might have had to suck it up a bit.