MOSCOW — The Russian soccer federation announced this year that it was toughening one of the rules for teams in its top domestic league: In an effort to bolster the development of young Russian players ahead of the 2018 World Cup, club teams would be particularly limited in the number of foreign players they could have on the field at any given time.

Reactions to the change varied, and in a recent interview, the coach of the Russian national team said — not surprisingly — that he understood the thinking behind the regulation. Also not surprisingly, the coach of CSKA Moscow, one of the country’s perennial juggernauts and a team with the financial resources to sign players from abroad, said he was opposed to the rule.

The only strange part about these perspectives was this: They came from the same man.

Leonid Slutsky, a former goalkeeper whose career ended, he has said, when he was hurt while trying to save a cat, currently manages Russia’s national team in addition to its most visible club team, CSKA.

It is not an ideal situation — Alex Ferguson and Guus Hiddink are the rare coaches who have tried, without success, to pull off such a prominent double — but it does not appear likely to end anytime soon.