The former Soviet Union dominated international hockey, winning nearly every world championship and Olympic tournament between 1954 and 1991. Vladimir Putin and Russia still long for those days of dominance and empire. This provocative act didn’t seem to help in the game, however, as Russia lost in overtime to Finland.
Source: Bloomberg
Russia’s national ice hockey team sparked outrage in northern Europe by wearing throwback jerseys from its Soviet past during an overtime loss to Finland Sunday, amid rising tensions between the Kremlin and the West.
The uniforms worn in Euro Hockey Tour’s Channel One Cup in Moscow had CCCP, or USSR in the Cyrillic alphabet, emblazoned across the chest, prompting Finland’s former Prime Minister Alexander Stubb to tweet that the nod to the Soviet regime was “an offensive gesture that does not belong to sport or anywhere else.”
The jerseys used in the Finland game, based on a design worn in the 1960s during an undefeated streak in international competitions, were honoring the 75th anniversary of the country’s first Olympic gold medal in the sport, the Russian Ice Hockey Federation said in a statement.
Finland’s former Prime Minister was not impressed.
I am surprised and disappointed that Russia was allowed to wear CCCP-shirts in an EHT match against Finland. That letter combination and the regime that stood behind it symbolises authoritarian imperialism and killed millions of innocent people people in the process. 1/2
— Alexander Stubb (@alexstubb) December 19, 2021
I will refrain from other examples one could draw from history. An offensive gesture that does not belong to sport or anywhere else. It matters little that Finland won the match. It matters a lot that countries in the ice-hockey family were brutally annexed by those letters. 2/2
— Alexander Stubb (@alexstubb) December 19, 2021
Tom Nichols called it “one of the saddest goddamned symbols of the state of modern Russia I’ve seen in a long time.”
Young Russian men wearing the uniform of a state that ended before they were born – and would have thrown them in prison for getting even a centimeter out of line – is just one of the saddest goddamned symbols of the state of modern #Russia I’ve seen in a long time. https://t.co/eA6XGzAf36
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) December 20, 2021