The Japan Times - Capitals say hockey star Ovechkin 'was asked' to film Putin ad

Russian superstar Ovechkin, a longtime supporter of Putin, is among a group of prominent Russians shown in a campaign video for the ruling United Russia party ahead of nationwide elections this week.

While Ovechkin's appearance comes as no surprise following similar endorsements of Putin in the past, it has drawn criticism as Russia's war in Ukraine drags through its fifth year.

"Alex Ovechkin is a Russian citizen who lives in Moscow with his family during the offseason and will live there following his retirement," said a Capitals spokesman in a statement sent to AFP.

"This summer, while in Russia, he was asked by his country to participate in a video campaign.

"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."

Putin's United Russia is assured of winning a majority of seats in the State Duma following this week's tightly controlled parliamentary elections, but the vote is seen by the Kremlin as a barometer of public opinion on the war with Ukraine.

The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Ovechkin founded the "PutinTeam" social movement in 2017 to support the Russian president in the following year's election, and uses a photo of himself with Putin on his official Instagram page.

But following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Ovechkin issued a plea for "no more war," adding: "He's my president, but... I'm not in politics."

As the war escalated in 2023, a group of Capitals fans protested outside the team's Capital One Arena, calling for Ovechkin to remove photos of Putin from his Instagram profile.

This week, Czech former ice hockey star Dominik Hasek, a longtime Putin critic, was among those to take issue with Ovechkin's latest endorsement.

"Everyone in this photograph has chosen to officially support Russia's imperialist war in Ukraine... Because of each of them, many Ukrainians and Russians will be killed," he wrote on social media, above a photo of the campaign video.

Ovechkin, 40, has scored an NHL record 929 goals in 1,573 games.

In July he signed a one-year contract worth $4.25 million to return for a 22nd season with the Washington Capitals, and has refused to commit to this being his final campaign.

K.Nakajima--JT