Washington Capitals address Alex Ovechkin’s role in Russian political ad

The Capitals said that LW Alex Ovechkin was “asked to participate” in an ad — that came to light this week — for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party while Ovechkin was back in his home country this summer, according to the AP. Capitals spokesperson Sergey Kocharov said in a statement, “Alex Ovechkin is a Russian citizen who lives in Moscow with his family during the offseason and will live there following his retirement. As the longest-tenured athlete in Washington, D.C., and a pillar of the community, his focus and ours is on the season ahead and the continued impact he makes on the ice and in our city.” Ovechkin is seen in the commercial “standing behind” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Hockey HOFer Viacheslav “Slava” Fetisov also participated, “leading to backlash on social media” from fellow HOFer Dominik Hasek, who “called it support for Russia’s war against Ukraine” (AP, 9/15).

UNITED WE STAND: In D.C., Mary Ilyushina noted in the video, Ovechkin stands behind Lavrov, who “reads a few rhyming lines, saying, ‘Whoever comes at us with the sword shall not expect mercy … let us all stand united as one.’” Ovechkin is a “longtime Putin supporter,” and Russian authorities have “repeatedly leaned on his fame, as a champion Russian athlete widely known in the United States, for their own domestic propaganda purposes.” Ovechkin had “stepped back from public involvement in Russian politics” since 2022 (WASHINGTON POST, 9/15).