SUNRISE, Fla. (CP) -- NHL goal-scoring leader Pavel Bure, who will skip the world championships in May but will play in next year's
Olympics, says Russian players remain at odds with their hockey
federation. 

 While Canada's top players are disappointed if they are not chosen for the Olympic team, many Russians go grudgingly and some refuse to play for their federation at all. 

 "When players go and the team does well, the federation takes all the
credit," Bure said Thursday on a conference call. "If we don't do well,
they blame the players who play in the NHL. 

 "That's why some guys don't want to go. It's a no-win situation." 

 Bure, who has a 12-goal lead in his race for a second consecutive
Maurice Richard Trophy, is skipping the worlds because he is tired after a long, losing season with the Florida Panthers. 

 But, despite differences with the federation, he won't miss the 2002
Winter Games in Salt Lake City. 

 "It was always my dream to play in the Olympics," said Bure, a
member Russia's silver-medal team at Nagano, Japan, in 1998. He was among the first eight Russians selected for Salt Lake last week. 

 "My father (freestyle swimmer Vladimir Bure) went three times and I
went once."