Alex Ovechkin is among the biggest gamers in NHL historical past. He is second solely to Wayne Gretzky for particular person objectives scored, and should in the future beat the Nice One in that almost all essential file.
However there’s a drawback: his unabashed assist for Vladimir Putin, Russia’s autocratic chief whose brutal and bloody battle in Ukraine has been condemned by international leaders.
Not solely has Ovechkin by no means criticized the Russian authorities for the invasion, however for years he has stored a photograph of himself with Putin because the profile image on his Instagram account.
Whereas many Russian athletes have been barred from worldwide competitors for the reason that battle started, that hasn’t occurred within the NHL.
Now, some are questioning why Ovechkin hasn’t confronted self-discipline or suspension, regardless of being Putin’s champion.
Captain of ‘Putin Workforce’
As quickly as Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, the Washington Capitals knew they’d a difficulty.
The subsequent day, the Capitals introduced their captain out to talk to the media. First, Ovechkin, 37, made a impartial assertion with out assigning any blame.
“Please, no extra battle. It does not matter who’s within the battle — Russia, Ukraine, totally different international locations,” he mentioned.
When requested if he nonetheless supported Vladimir Putin, Ovechkin replied, “Properly, he is my president.” With regard to the invasion, he mentioned, “Like, I’m Russian, proper?”
The day after Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, Russian NHL star Alex Ovechkin briefly spoke to the media, saying, ‘Please, no extra battle,’ however declined to criticize Russia or Putin.
And maybe his most shocking remark? “I’m not in politics, I’m an athlete.”
However Ovechkin has been very a lot part of Russia’s political scene since 2014, when Putin’s military first invaded Ukraine, annexing Crimea and frightening battle within the Ukrainian area of Donbas.
Virtually instantly, Ovechkin joined an internet marketing campaign to assist Russia’s actions.
Former hockey journalist Slava Malamud grew up within the Soviet Union however lives within the U.S. and used to jot down for the most important sports activities paper in Russia, Sport-Categorical. His predominant beat was masking the Washington Capitals, till he known as out Ovechkin for his assist of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in March 2014.
“He took half in a marketing campaign, which was a sequence of picture shoots with Russian celebrities through which they promoted the hashtag marketing campaign known as ‘Save Youngsters from Fascism.’ The marketing campaign’s message was that Ukraine is a Nazi or a fascist nation which is killing kids for some cause.”
Malamud wrote about this vociferously on his Twitter web page, upsetting Ovechkin and the workforce a lot they took away Malamud’s credentials.
“The Capitals shut me down fully. They despatched me a letter saying issues like criticizing Ovechkin was out of bounds … and that I am unprofessional and I’d now not be welcome within the area.”
Across the similar time, after an embarrassing exhibiting on the home-turf Olympics in Sochi, Ovechkin captained the Russian workforce to a gold medal on the World Championships in Minsk, a lesser match with weaker gamers.
Malamud was there to cowl it.
“Putin went down into the locker room, I used to be there, and Ovechkin [took] the World Championship cup and gave it to Putin. And it was a really medieval feudal scene of a loyal knight presenting the sovereign with the spoils of victory,” the journalist recalled.
“Putin drank from the cup and gave Ovechkin this huge, moist kiss. It was extraordinarily symbolic. No person may have missed the symbolism right here: The wedding of sports activities and energy.”
Putin, who has been utilizing hockey for propaganda functions for years, then invited Ovechkin and the remainder of the workforce to be feted within the Kremlin. That is the place the notorious picture that’s now on Ovechkin’s Instagram account was taken.
The courtship picked up in 2017. Putin known as Ovechkin on his wedding ceremony day, and the hockey participant helped type a propaganda car for Putin’s presidential marketing campaign, which he known as – in English – the Putin Workforce.
It was geared towards younger individuals, and Ovechkin personally addressed them in Russian in a brief video.
“Let’s not be embarrassed to be perceived as unhip. I’m for Putin and I’m not hiding it. Putin Workforce!”
Alex Ovechkin has claimed he is ‘not in politics,’ however he has publicly supported Russian President Vladimir Putin for years, together with on this 2017 marketing campaign video.
Malamud believes this crossed a line.
“That was a message of a politician, an individual who has willingly develop into a political ambassador [for someone] who’s selling tyranny.”
Ought to Ovie be punished?
Hockey followers and North Individuals, generally, paid little consideration to all of this till Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine almost a 12 months in the past.
As numerous skilled sports activities had been banning groups from Russia world wide, the NHL and the Capitals knew they needed to handle the very fact that there have been dozens of Russian gamers within the league — not the least of them, the famous person Ovechkin.
On Feb. 28, 2022, the NHL issued an announcement, condemning Russia’s invasion however took no different steps to self-discipline or droop any of the gamers. Quite the opposite, they harassed that these gamers would wish safety.
“We additionally stay involved concerning the well-being of the gamers from Russia, who play within the NHL on behalf of their NHL golf equipment, and never on behalf of Russia. We perceive they and their households are being positioned in a particularly tough place.”
Since Ovechkin’s three-minute media availability because the battle started, neither he nor the Capitals have commented on the topic.
Earlier than Ovechkin returned to Russia final week because of the dying of his father, CBC Information tried to get feedback from him, the Capitals, and the NHL however was rejected by all of them. The NHL by no means responded.
Regardless of the general public nature of Ovechkin’s ties to Putin, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman instructed a Finnish newspaper in November, “I do not know what Ovechkin’s relationship is with Vladimir Putin.”
No NHL participant, present or former, has spoken out on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine save one — goaltending nice Dominik Hasek.
On Twitter, Hasek, who retired in 2012 and now lives in Prague, known as Ovechkin’s assertion “hen shit.”
In an interview with the CBC, he expanded additional.
“Alex is one of the best commercial for the battle, out of all of the Russian hockey gamers — and that is as a result of he’s each one of the best shooter and Putin’s trusted propagandist.”
Past Ovechkin, Hasek thinks all the dozens of Russian gamers within the NHL ought to face suspension.
“The Russian military attacked democratic Ukraine for completely no cause,” mentioned Hasek, who grew up in communist Czechoslovakia.
“Russian hockey gamers within the NHL at the moment are one of the best commercial for the Russian battle and Russian crimes, together with the genocide of Ukrainian kids.
“Due to this fact, if the NHL doesn’t wish to assist the Russian battle and crimes, it should not enable Russian gamers to go on the ice.”
The Canadian and the united statesgovernments have issued financial sanctions in opposition to many outstanding Putin supporters, however not Ovechkin or different Russian hockey gamers. Hasek thinks they should intervene, if the NHL will not act.
Szymon Szemberg disagrees. He’s a retired official of the Worldwide Ice Hockey Federation, initially from Poland however residing in Sweden most of his life.
As a longtime hockey journalist, he is adopted the difficulty from totally different angles and could be very vital of the Putin invasion. However he does not imagine the NHL ought to ban Russian gamers.
“You can not disqualify or ban somebody as a result of he’s from Russia,” mentioned Szemberg.
“I am the primary one to say that Ovechkin holds despicable views, however both you’ve got free speech or you do not.”
Szemberg agrees that the Putin picture is tough to abdomen and has a suggestion.
“If I had been the NHL, I’d encourage him to take it away, as a result of it seems unhealthy. It seems unhealthy on him, it seems unhealthy on the league and it seems unhealthy on the Washington Capitals.”
In line with Emily Kaplan, a hockey author with ESPN, they’ve already achieved that.
“I used to be instructed that the Washington Capitals have requested Ovie to take it down; they’ve requested him to deactivate his Instagram account,” Kaplan reported in March 2022.
“And Ovie, every time, has instructed them, ‘If I do each of these, I actually really feel like that could be a signal again residence that I’m talking out in opposition to Putin. And I really feel like my household is in peril.'”
How actual is that menace?
This declare is on the coronary heart of your complete story: the concept that if Ovechkin or any of the opposite gamers had been to criticize Putin or the invasion, there can be horrible penalties for his or her households in Russia.
However Malamud says there is no proof of that.
“That is definitely one thing Ovechkin would need individuals to imagine. That is the road that the Washington Capitals have chosen. However nothing could possibly be farther from the reality.”
Within the Soviet period, the Kremlin was recognized to retaliate in opposition to the households of dissidents who spoke out from overseas. However nevertheless autocratic and violent Putin has been throughout his 23 years in energy, Malamud says attacking households of critics has by no means been a part of the regime’s modus operandi.
“Putin does not work that means. He does not go after celebrities. He trusts his loyal propaganda individuals to smear these celebrities and that is it,” mentioned Malamud.
“Putin goes after people who find themselves both powerless and have no one to defend them … or he goes after his political opponents who’re authentic threats to him, like [opposition politician Alexei] Navalny.”
Malamud presents the instance of singer Alla Pugacheva, a beloved star and arguably Russia’s largest movie star for the previous 50 years, who left Russia to reside in Israel when the invasion started.
Quickly after, she and her nearly equally well-known husband, comic Maxim Galkin, started criticizing the battle.
Their household hasn’t been touched, Malamud says.
“[She] comes out and says very unambiguously within the first months of the battle, ‘This can be a crime, we should not be doing this, that is horrible.’ Ovechkin cannot do it?”
There are different examples of Russian celebrities and sports activities figures talking out in opposition to the battle with out recognized penalties for his or her households.
In Barcelona, Russian feminine soccer star Nadezdha Karpova, whom Lionel Messi took beneath his wing, has repeatedly used her Instagram account to name Putin names like “scum” and ask that he be prosecuted as a battle legal.
Equally, the retired captain of the boys’s soccer workforce, Igor Denisov, denounced the battle in sturdy phrases.
“This battle is a catastrophe, a whole horror for me,” he mentioned in an interview with a Russian YouTuber final June.
“I do not know in the event that they jail or kill me for what I am saying, however I am saying what I really feel. And why ought to many individuals who disapprove stay silent?”
When two of Denisov’s sons had been later stored out of an elite soccer program in St. Petersburg, some urged it was punishment for talking out, however the academy denies that was the explanation.
Dominik Hasek is sympathetic, and suggests providing refugee standing to athletes keen to denounce Putin’s battle, however needs individuals to maintain their deal with what is occurring in Ukraine.
“I do know it’s extremely tough for Russian gamers to sentence the battle. I fully perceive. However you must take into consideration one factor: We’re speaking about possibly 100,000 misplaced lives [in Ukraine],” he mentioned.
“So evaluate these two issues, and also you see life is extra essential than possibly some little hassle in Russia.”
Penalties
Apart from Hasek, one different legendary athlete has spoken out, basketball famous person Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, whose personal NBA scoring file has simply been damaged.
“Ovechkin just isn’t a person preventing for equality and in opposition to injustice, simply extra killing. That’s not a person whose athletic feats I wish to rejoice. Nor do I need our youngsters to look as much as him as a hero,” he wrote in his publication.
Abdul-Jabbar mentioned he believes the NHL ought to droop Ovechkin and sponsors ought to hearth him — writing that whereas athletes can take positions based mostly on their beliefs, additionally they must take the results.
On the earth {of professional} sports activities, together with the NHL, it is common for gamers to face self-discipline beneath what are known as “morality clauses” for unacceptable conduct off the ice or subject, together with home violence and racist or homophobic slurs.
Final fall, the Brooklyn Nets suspended NBA participant Kyrie Irving for eight video games with out pay for refusing to “unequivocally say he has no antisemitic beliefs” after tweeting a hyperlink to a documentary that included Holocaust denial and conspiracy theories about Jews.
Malamud believes the distinction in Ovechkin’s case is all about what the league believes society finds acceptable — or unacceptable.
Whereas Malamud says the NBA is aware of its viewers cares about antisemitism, he thinks the NHL’s silence is an indication of societal indifference to the battle in Ukraine.
“I imply, you may’t be racist, you may’t be homophobic, you may’t be beating up your spouse and getting away with it on this planet of American skilled sports activities. However genocide, the battle of conquest on the opposite facet of the world — ahh, they determine that most individuals wouldn’t care about it, particularly.”