evermoreeclipse:

doitfortheboys:

pksuburban:

Your points are valid however,

Consider this: hockey in Russia is very political and Ovechkin would probably not have a career if he didn’t say something in Putin’s favor. Putin is very involved with the hockey team and hockey stars there and uses them for political statements and to ease the tension. They are his pawns and we don’t know how willing they are or aren’t in doing what they do

Also consider: you’re not Russian so you don’t know what it’s like to live over there. You and I have freedom to speak out against the people in power. People in Russia do not. Everything there is regulated.

Russian politics are way more complicated than any of us realize and I’m not excusing the piece of shit Putin’s policies at all because he’s fucking garbage.

But also consider: you came to the wrong blog to hate on Ovi for anything.

also, somewhat unrelated, but worth mentioning:

if you’re into documentaries, i really suggest watching icarus directed by bryan fogel (it won an oscar, and is available on netflix – x, x). essentially, it started off as a lance-armstrong-inspired investigation of how easy it is to get away with taking performance-enhancing drugs in the world of cycling, but ended up focusing on grigory rodchenkov – the scientist fogel befriended on behalf of the documentary – as it was revealed that the russian government was running a covert doping program for a number of their olympic athletes for well over a decade (including during the sochi olympics), and rodchenkov was coerced into overseeing all of it. 

something i took away from icarus is that the russian government – yes, that totally includes putin – does not fuck around when it comes to sports, and that bad shit can happen to you if you’re the reason why things don’t go their way.

according to rodchenkov’s testimony:

• fsb agents (the fsb being the equally shady and terrifying successor to the kgb) were regularly present in labs to make sure technicians who were involved with the doping program carried out orders, and they played an integral role in swapping out the urine samples of “dirty” russian olympians during the sochi olympics (x).
• when news of the scandal broke and investigation began, rodchenkov told fogel that there were two fsb agents stationed at his house, and that he believed that “they’re going to kill him,” since he was the one with all the knowledge of how to program was carried out, and thus the biggest liability (x, x).

additionally, two former senior officials involved in the scandal died unexpectedly under suspicious circumstances within weeks of news of the scandal becoming public (x), and the honorary president of russia’s olympic committee straight-up said that rodchenkov deserved to be executed for whistleblowing (x).

despite russia’s attempts to press fabricated charges against rodchenkov, attempts to manipulate him by threatening his family, and get him extradited back to them, he was put into witness protection briefly after fleeing to america (x).

BASICALLY, what i’m trying to get at is this: putin’s a bad fucking dude, and so are a lot of the guys in the russian government. so, whenever ovechkin or any other russian athlete or sports-related official smiles and jokes and meets requests made by putin, yeah, they’re supporting an absolute monster of a human being, and they could be doing it because they have shitty morals, or just prefer turn a blind eye to russian politics, but i get that high calibre russian athletes could get in trouble for doing anything else. 

i’m an american who watched a documentary on netflix, and maybe it’s not this deep, but if someone can guarantee safety for themselves and their family by smiling and waving next to a evil bastard, well –

As someone who is a Russian Linguistics and Culture Major, all of the above is so true that it hurts. For years any high profile Russian who has spoken out against the current government of Russia (which by the way only exists because the government rigged the polls) have wound up in a myriad of awful situations, and it isn’t just athletes. One of the big things that’s been done pretty regularly since the fall of the USSR is the assassination of media reporters who try to expose the corruption of the Russian government and it’s so bad we literally have a list of reporters and a Wikipedia page about those who have died under mysterious circumstances while in Russia. And don’t forget about the recent nerve gas attack on Skripal and his daughter in the UK which was directly linked to Russia because Skripal worked against the Russians during the 1990s and 2000s. It isn’t just athletes, but any Russian who expresses a position against the government is targeted.

Russia also has a pretty bad track record with athletes in general, like @doitfortheboys said, they’re basically used as puppets in the Russian government. People like Evgeni Plushenko have been appointed to government positions just so that they can be used as propaganda machines and are typically forced to remain in country except for competitions or games. They don’t have the option of saying ‘sounds cool, but no thanks’ because it’s quite literally a death scentance for the person who declines and/or their families. Also, Russia has attempted to keep athletes from competing internationally for a very long time. Evgeni Malkin had to sneak out of the country and hid out in Finland before escaping to the States, he’s incredibly lucky that he and his family are safe at the moment (though Metallurg Magnitogorsk had a lot to do with it as well not just Russia).

The gist is, Russia is not a place that celebrates diversity the way we do. Many Russians are encouraged to submit to the homogeneous regime Putin has set in place and anyone who disagrees is at a high risk of having something awful to happen to them or to their family.