Russia's reigning basketball champion CSKA Moscow was drawn against Lithuania's Zalgiris and Czech team Nymburk for the 2012-13 VTB United League group stage on Sunday.
The league's 20 participants were divided into two groups in the draw in the Estonian capital of Tallinn, with the top six from each qualifying for the playoffs and the top two advancing directly to the quarterfinals.
The VTB League is a competition that includes teams from Russia and eight other countries in Eastern Europe.
It will offer qualification for the continent's top tournament the Euroleague if Russian officials give it the all clear to determine the national champion, as expected.
CSKA, last season's Euroleague runner-up, is in Group B with fellow Russian teams Enisey Krasnoyarsk, Lokomotiv Kuban, Nizhny Novgorod and Triumph Lyubertsy.
Lithuanian team Neptunas Klaipeda and Minsk-2006 from Belarus complete the group.
In Group A, last year's VTB League finalist UNICS Kazan plays against the Moscow suburbs side Khimki; Spartak St. Petersburg; Krasnye Krylia Samara; Lietuvos Rytas of Lithuania; Astana from Kazakhstan; Ukraine's Azovmash Mariupol; Estonia's Kalev; Turov from Poland; and a wild card holder.
The wild card will be awarded to replace Ukraine's Budivelnik, which was excluded for demanding $300,000 to enter, league president Sergei Ivanov said Sunday.
