An interview to mark the start of the NHL season went off the rails when an activist reporter hammered one of the league’s greatest players of all time with political questions.
Almost two weeks before the games start to count, Washington Capitals forward Alexander Ovechkin was talking to the media when an ESPN reporter started pelting him with question regarding a recent political ad he had been a part of.
She’s ‘got an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for abducting Ukrainian children.’
Ovechkin, the NHL’s all-time goal-scoring leader — yes, he has scored even more goals than Wayne Gretzky — was featured in a pro-Russia ad for President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party in the lead-up to the elections last weekend.
Although Ovechkin simply stood in the background during the ad, ESPN reporter Robert Klemko — who is half-Ukrainian — went after the hockey player about the details of the filming, asking if he informed his team before the video shoot.
“No,” Ovechkin replied, per Klemko’s recollection of the interview.
The reporter then told Ovechkin his appearance in the commercial “feels to people like a pro war stance.”
“I don’t think it’s a pro war,” Ovechkin reportedly replied. “I think it’s just support what’s happening in Russia. I want the peace and love for everybody. It doesn’t matter who you are, American, Russian, or Ukrainian.”
After Klemko claimed the war would “be done soon” if Putin stops the invasion, he later asked if Ovechkin would support Russia “no matter what.”
The 41-year-old replied, “Well, I’m gonna live there, yeah.”
This prompted the ESPN journalist to ask an inflammatory question: “So if they’re responsible for a genocide, you would support the genocide?”
Ovechkin asked for a translation of “genocide” from a member of his media team, a note corroborated by different outlets. He then replied, “Oh. I would say, like, I’m, I hope it’s not gonna, it’s not gonna be like that.”
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In a clip from CTV News, Ovechkin told reporters he is going to move back to Russia when he retires from hockey.
“I’m going to stay there. I’m going to live there. My kids are going to live there.”
Regarding the political ad, Ovechkin stated that he’s “for peace and love” and that he hopes “everything’s going to be okay.”
He revealed when he was asked to do the commercial, he simply replied, “Yes.”
“So, simple as that,” Ovechkin said.
Outlet HockeyFeed said Klemko then “pressed” Ovechkin after the group press conference and attempted to tell the player what his involvement in the ad “really signals.”
Ovechkin continuously gave statements like “I’m not in politics,” and “I don’t know who that is” in regard to certain people featured in the ad, but Klemko pressed forward and asked the Russian if he felt he was perpetuating propaganda.
“It mimics messaging Russians get that says Ukraine is responsible for being invaded by Russia,” Klemko wrote.
“I can’t say who’s right and who’s wrong,” Ovechkin responded soon thereafter.
Klemko said he told Ovechkin that one of the people in the ad is “Maria Lvova Belova,” who, he said, “got an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for abducting Ukrainian children.”
Ovechkin said he didn’t know who that person is.
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Sasha Mordovets/Getty Images
Klemko’s subsequent article for ESPN, published Thursday, cited University of Maryland “senior scholar” Sarah Oates, who directly stated that Russia is “perpetuating a genocide on Ukrainian people.”
“Putin has said Ukraine and Ukrainians have no right to exist. And this is a key reason for the invasion. Ovechkin supports Putin, he supports the Russian regime, and that means he supports genocide,” Oates claimed.
After his questions about genocide, Klemko said the media relations team ended his interview with Ovechkin.
Capitals general manager Chris Patrick later told ESPN that if Ovechkin had told the franchise about the ad, the organization would have “worked to avoid the situation very hard. And I doubt we’d be standing where we’re standing right now if he had run it by us.”
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