Last April, Alexander Ovechkin had barely finished gliding gleefully on the ice when the Russian propaganda machine began to rev up.
The Kremlin seized on the opportunity to portray a landmark goal by one of Vladimir Putin’s most loyal and high-profile supporters as a national victory for Russia.
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Putin publicly congratulated Ovechkin on surpassing Wayne Gretzky to become the NHL’s all-time scoring leader, calling the feat “not only a personal success but also a true celebration for fans in Russia and abroad.” Putin’s political allies praised Ovechkin for “never shunning his passport,” even when “Russians were bullied for being Russian.” Even astronauts aboard the International Space Station shouted out Ovechkin from orbit.
When Ovechkin spoke on the ice after making history, the Washington Capitals star thanked his family, teammates, coaches, trainers and even the opposing goaltender who couldn’t save a laser shot from the top of the left faceoff circle. Ovechkin ended his speech, pointing to the Capital One Arena crowd and saying: “All the fans, the world, Russia, we did it, kids, we did it!”
The way Russia phrased Ovechkin’s comments was more politically stimulating than the original remarks. Billboards across Moscow bear Ovechkin’s face and the four-word quote: “Russians, we did it!”
Opportunities for Russia to turn its sporting success into a propaganda tool for national figures are even more scarce at this month’s Winter Olympics in Italy. The Russian team is a pariah in the sporting world, having been banned by the International Olympic Committee along with close ally Belarus less than a week after invading Ukraine four years ago.
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Thirteen athletes from Russia and seven from Belarus will take part in the Milan Cortina Games, but they will do so without flags, colors, anthems or a place on the medal table. They are officially stateless and do not compete for their country but as Individual Athlete Neutral (AIN).
Neutral athletes will compete in eight disciplines: alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, figure skating, freestyle skiing, luge, ski mountaineering and short and long track speed skating. The International Olympic Committee announced that Russian and Belarusian athletes could not compete in team events, eliminating the possibility of Russia fielding a strong men’s hockey team to compete for medals.
In the Beijing Olympics four years ago, Russia participated as the “Russian Olympic Committee”. At the 2026 Olympics, Russia will not be able to compete in any team events, with a total of only 13 athletes competing as individual neutrals. (Kiril Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images)
(Kiril Kudryavtsev via Getty Images)
Russian and Belarusian individual athletes who have qualified for the Olympics in their respective sports still need to jump through one more hurdle to gain the right to participate in the Cortina Games in Milan. An independent three-person panel conducted background checks on each athlete to weed out those “contracted with the Russian or Belarusian military or state security agencies” or “actively support the war in Ukraine.”
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Ovechkin is a prime example of a Russian athlete who is unlikely to pass the vetting process even if the IOC allows the country’s hockey team to compete. He launched the #PutinTeam social media campaign in support of Putin months before Russia’s 2018 presidential election. He has also repeatedly refused to issue a direct condemnation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
To this day, despite years of intense scrutiny from the U.S. media, Ovechkin’s Instagram profile photo shows him posing with Putin in the Kremlin.
Lukas Aubin, an expert on sports geopolitics, said the exclusion or neutral participation of Russian athletes is harming the Kremlin because it removes one of the regime’s most effective messaging tools.
“Sport has always been a powerful symbolic resource for the Kremlin,” said Aubin, author of the 2022 book “Sport under Vladimir Putin.” “Olympic medals, world championships and the staging of major events such as the 2014 Sochi Olympics or the 2018 World Cup have helped sustain Russia’s story of success, modernity, resilience, overcoming post-Soviet decline. These moments provide highly visible displays of national strength to domestic audiences and the international community.
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“When these stages are closed, the regime loses a communication tool. This does not directly threaten the political system, but it weakens one of its most effective symbolic means.”
Russia last participated in the Winter Olympics as Russia in 2014 when it hosted the Sochi Games. Russia’s massive, state-sponsored doping program was subsequently revealed by whistleblower Grigory Rodchenkov and confirmed by an investigation led by Canadian law professor Dr. Richard McLaren.
The McLaren report found that between 2011 and 2015, Russia encouraged more than 1,000 summer, winter and Paralympic athletes to take performance-enhancing drugs. Cheating was at its peak during the Sochi Games, with positive urine and blood tests indicating athletes may have been unknowingly doped.
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Russia invaded Ukraine just days after the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics before the International Olympic Committee lifted doping sanctions against Russia. Fighting and airstrikes continue despite U.S. attempts to broker peace. Therefore, Russia will have almost no presence in Milan Cortina, just like it did at the Summer Olympics in Paris two years ago.
With Russia absent from the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Kremlin is seeking to simultaneously undermine and malign the quality of the games while reframing Russia’s exclusion as persecution by a hostile West. The Kremlin also tried to create its own post-Paris multi-sport Games, welcoming athletes from countries friendly to Russia, but the ambitious project was first delayed and then effectively abandoned.
Now, without its star-studded hockey team and many of Italy’s other top winter sports athletes, Russia’s best hope for a medal may be 18-year-old figure skater Adeliia Petrosian. The raven-haired three-time Russian national champion is believed to be the first female skater to land a quadruple spin in competition, but she rarely competes outside her home country and is unproven on the global stage.
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As the latest prodigy under Kamila Valieva’s controversial coach Eteri Tutberidze at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, Petrosyan is likely to attract more attention at the competition. Valieva, then a 15-year-old European champion and gold medal favorite, fell twice in the free skate and finished a disappointing fourth place amid a doping scandal that resulted in a four-year ban.
In an unusually strong rebuke, then-IOC president Thomas Bach admitted that he was “very disturbed” to see Tutberidze berating Valiyeva as she came off the bench, despite the intense mental pressure she had been under since testing positive.
“It was chilling to see how her closest associates treated her afterwards, with what seemed like an extremely cold attitude,” Bach said.
For Russia, any path back to the Olympics is likely to require a peace treaty with Ukraine, compliance with World Anti-Doping Agency drug testing policies and weakening the resolve of Western allied governments. There are still many hurdles to overcome before the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, but Aubin insists “the possibility cannot be completely ruled out”.
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Until then, Russia remains in purgatory, without a global sporting stage to showcase its capabilities to the world.
“Sport is a double-edged sword for any country that turns sport into a political tool,” Aubin said. “When victories come, they bring visibility, prestige, and a sense of national elevation. When sanctions, scandals, or ostracism follow, they expose countries to reputational damage, international scrutiny, and symbolic loss. The same mechanisms that amplify victory also amplify shame.”
