NHL superstar Alexander Ovechkin, a native Russian, stirred up controversy recently when he appeared in a campaign ad for Vladimir Putin’s party, United Russia, ahead of the country’s recent parliamentary elections. Of course, those same elections were overseen by Putin, and the outcome was largely known before any votes were cast.
Despite playing in the United States since 2004, and benefiting from America’s robust economy that netted him nearly $175,000,000 in total career contracts, vibrant cultural life, and open society, the NHL’s all-time goal scorer has long been a Putin supporter. He continues to embrace this stance knowing the Russian dictator’s documented brutality of his own people, including Putin’s gross abuse of human rights and the now almost five-year unprovoked full-scale war against Ukraine.
In a free society, Ovechkin has every right to hold and express his opinions – however objectionable they may be. That’s the beauty of America’s commitment to free speech; people, with rare exception, can say unpopular, wrong, or even terrible things. It doesn’t, however, shield Ovechkin from criticism or condemnation when he lends his star power to one of the world’s most loathsome and corrupt regimes.
Ironically, Russians in Russia aren’t as lucky as Ovechkin, who is free to say whatever he wants here in the United States. Putin restricts the rights of Russians inside Russia and crushes any opposition to his rule. He even goes after critics outside of Russia through transnational repression like the poisonings of Alexander Litvinenko and Sergei Skriptal in the United Kingdom.
Ovechkin was recently questioned at a press conference about his appearance in the campaign ad:
“The thing about video: I’m Russian,” he answered. “As soon as I’m done playing hockey, I’m probably going to stay there. I’m going to live there. My kids are going to be there, family. So I’m full of peace and love, and I hope everything’s going to be OK.”
But it’s not going to be OK. Putin is a villain who might be coercing Ovechkin’s support by threatening family back home. We know for sure he has an inglorious track record of denying his people’s civil liberties and political rights. Most recently, Putin barred opposition parties from participating in the lead-up to the very “elections” in which Ovechkin campaigned. The Kremlin also continues to target the free flow of information as well as civil society groups critical of the government.
Politicians and activists like Alexei Navalny and Boris Nemtsov have also been killed because they dared challenge Putin. Navalny was poisoned in 2024 while already imprisoned, and Nemtsov was gunned down near the Kremlin in 2015. There have been many others who shared their fate.
Meanwhile, Putin’s illegal war against Ukraine has been a meatgrinder for Russian soldiers. One report says Russia is losing around 40,000 troops per month and another indicates Putin’s forces have suffered more than 1.5 million casualties since launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
“As I said, I’m Russian and I support my country,” Ovechkin reiterated to reporters. “So, as I said, I’m for peace and love, and I hope, in the world, it doesn’t matter who you are … All right, let’s do hockey questions.”
The old adage warns not to meet your heroes because they’ll disappoint you. Obviously, that’s not always true but, every once in a while, it hits the mark.
Putin doesn’t want peace and love. Nor does Ovechkin’s propaganda mask the blood on Putin’s hands.
Perhaps Ovechkin will realize that someday. Then he could offer a more courageous display of patriotism by using his star power to show solidarity with the ordinary Russians whom Putin brutalizes.
