The Washington Capitals broke their silence on Tuesday over Alexander Ovechkin‘s appearance in a campaign video for Russia’s ruling party. Former Canadian defence minister and Alberta premier Jason Kenney responded by calling the explanation false.
Ovechkin features in a United Russia campaign clip released ahead of parliamentary elections running September 18 to 20, standing among a group that includes Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, former NHL defenseman Vyacheslav Fetisov and Russian military personnel.
Capitals on Alexander Ovechkin
The NHL deferred questions about it to the Capitals, who issued a statement through spokesperson Sergey Kocharov.
“Alex Ovechkin is a Russian citizen who lives in Moscow with his family during the offseason and will live there following his retirement. This summer, while in Russia, he was asked by his country to participate in a video campaign,” Kocharov said. “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.”
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It was the phrase “asked by his country” that Kenney took issue with, arguing it misrepresents who actually made the request.
“This statement from the Capitals is an outright lie. It says Ovechkin was ‘asked by his country to participate in a video campaign,'” Kenney wrote on X. “He was asked by a political party, United Russia, to appear in a partisan ad, not by the Russian Federation.”
He then pushed the point further.
“Or are the Washington Capitals now part of Putin’s propaganda machine, implying that there is no difference between Putin’s party and the Russian state?” Kenney wrote.
Ovechkin and Putin
United Russia is the country’s ruling party and holds a dominant majority in the State Duma, which is part of why the distinction Kenney is drawing has become a flashpoint. The ad itself carries the slogan “when we are united, we are invincible,” and features Lavrov saying that those who come at Russia with a sword should expect no mercy.
Ovechkin’s support for Vladimir Putin is long-standing. He founded the Putin Team movement in 2017 ahead of the following year’s presidential election, and a photo of the two has long served as his Instagram profile picture.
In February 2022, days after the invasion of Ukraine began, he called for peace while declining to criticize Putin, saying “he’s my president” and that he is “not in politics.” A group of Capitals fans protested outside Capital One Arena in 2023, calling on him to remove the Putin images from his account.
Ovechkin turns 41 on Thursday. He signed a one-year, $4.25 million contract in July for his 22nd NHL season and has scored a record 929 goals in 1,573 regular-season games.
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