Federal ministers slam NHL player Alex Ovechkin’s pro-Putin ad, but won’t say if he should be sanctioned

OTTAWA — NHL hockey superstar Alex Ovechkin’s support of Russian President Vladimir Putin is sparking backlash in the halls of power in Canada, but federal ministers would not say whether the player should be sanctioned on Canadian soil.

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“Terrific hockey player, terrible view of geopolitics,” said Justice Minister Sean Fraser on Friday, as he was heading into a Liberal caucus meeting.

“If you can look at what’s going on in Ukraine right now and turn a blind eye to the atrocities being committed by the Putin regime, then you are at best willfully blind.”

Ovechkin appeared in a commercial backing Putin’s political party, United Russia, which aired earlier this month. Russians are headed to the polls this weekend.

In the video, the Washington Capitals captain stands behind Putin’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov as he appears to threaten Western countries who oppose Russia. Lavrov said anyone who comes at his country “with a sword” can expect “no mercy.”

Ovechkin addressed the controversy on Thursday, saying that he accepted the Russian government’s request for him to appear in the video without hesitation. He also said that while he is pro-Russia, he is “for peace and love” and not in favour of war.

The Canadian government has steadfastly condemned Russia’s illegal occupation and attempted annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and has sanctioned hundreds of individuals and entities that enable Putin’s regime.

Asked by reporters whether Ovechkin should be sanctioned too when he plays on Canadian soil, Fraser said he will leave “the formal process to play out when it comes to policy decisions taken by some of my colleagues.”

That being said, he thinks the hockey player’s position should be widely condemned.

“Not just as an elected official, but as a Canadian who cares about the values that Ukrainians are fighting for on the front lines of a war for the very idea of democracy, at minimum, we require a public condemnation of support for such a brutal regime.”

Ovechkin has a longstanding relationship with the Russian president and even launched a social movement called “Putin Team” in 2017 to publicly support him ahead of the 2018 presidential election.

This week, the Capitals winger attempted to downplay the backlash caused by the campaign advertisement, arguing that he is first and foremost Russian.

“As soon as I’m done playing hockey … I’m going to live there, my kids are going to live there,” he told reporters.

“I’m for peace and love, and I hope everything is going to be OK. My home is Russia; (the United States) is my second home.”

The NHL has explicitly avoided commenting on the campaign, saying it would leave that to his team.

Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon said while there is no bigger supporter of Ukraine and Ukrainians than Canada, he is “not fond” of mixing sports and politics.

“But it’s pretty clear that Mr. Ovechkin’s actions will leave a lot of discomfort to many hockey fans,” he added.

Liberal caucus chair James Maloney said his Toronto riding of Etobicoke is home to one of the largest Ukrainian communities in his country.

“There’s significant unease — if I can put it mildly — with what he did, and a lot of people share that feeling,” he said.

In terms of sanctioning Ovechkin, Maloney said “those kinds of decisions are for others.”

“Look, I’m not happy about it for reasons that are plainly obvious,” he said.

“But what happens next is not up to me.”

National Post
calevesque@postmedia.com

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