Very interesting. Gold or not, when a coach's # 1 & 2 no longer want to work with him, he is doing something wrong.

Dear Kosintseva sisters, Please come to the USA and join our great team of former Russians. The coach for USA is very pleasant and friendly, and our national pride will not depend on your performance. That means less pressure on you. We will see to it that the coach brings you tea and biscuits each morning. You can live in sunny Florida just like your old teammate Alexandra Kosteniuk, maybe even convert her over to the stars and stripes herself! See you soon!

"I always thought that the big sports result covers everything." - Ilya Levitov

So he doesn't matter if the captain has "constantly disrespectful, arrogant, dismissive, sometimes boorish attitude towards (...) team members"; as long as the team wins, he can do "everything"!? Interesting insight on the RCF officials mentality.

Wonder what will happen if the team is composed of mens. Will Rublevsky try to shake them up emotionally?

Hard to determine much with the lack of specific information, but it's nice to see that the sisters wish to resolve things privately. This seems respectful.

I thought Russia's Women GM team would still win without a coach anyway

Do specifics matter at this point? Certain inferences we can make from chessvibes, chessbase reports, however.

1. After all this, the sisters are very polite in expressing, therefore they seem genuine as their concerns are.
2. Even the silver medalistists are looking happy in the picture but not the gold winning sisters.
3. One can make out that the coach Rublevsky is unaware of something seriously wrong with the sisters. This is one of pretense or insensitivity or downplaying or admittance from Rublevsky, neither one is good.
4. Apparently no effort was taken to address a very obvious issue in all this time before the sisters go public.
5. The sisters are very reluctant to come out in the open. If you needed to find another federation before you can express yourselves means, something is seriously wrong. Rublevsky has some clout or enjoys some influence and support.

Unless he patches up or apologizes with the sisters instead of resorting to cover up, I think Rublevsky should be sacked immediately.

i believe all this has to do with the Istanbul chess olympiad round 8 incident.
If i remember correctly, in a crucial phase of the olympiad, russia & china were going cheek by jowl and at rd8 russia was facing Ukraine. Tatia playing on board 1 slowly outplayed Lahno but after a childish blunder the game transitioned from a sure win (of the game AND round against Ukraine) to a dead draw. Tatia obviously refusing to accept that, continued playing aimlessly for about another 2-3 hrs, in a now empty venue, enraging Rublevsky.

USA would be a very good alternative to Russia? I mean if Rublevsky is the wrong person than fire him and hire a more friendly GM and that`s it. Russia is still chess-country number 1

With the best players in the world on its team, anyone's grandmother could coach the Russian women's team to Gold.

The photo said it all: It looks like Rublevsky had won Gold and the Kosintsevas were only bystanders.

Every federation on earth would be proud of Nadezhda and Tatiana. They did a brilliant job!

Please play for Germany !!! /// - just a feeling by my heart, not any advice at all ;)

Typical bitchy women. Either be specific or keep your mouth shut.
Play the emotional blackmail cards with your boy friends.

Don't underestimate the mind games women play - in home and in work places.

well, is mr rublevsky, by any chance, a bit of a bully-boy? or is this a rare case of deceiving outer appearance .... ?

in any case they are so very much on the opposite side of things that either the sisters' or rublevsky's behaviour is bound to be huge problem ....

"shaking people up" - it needs more from a coach than to just be a good player - shaking too much like a bully can easily lead to breaking, can't it?