JOE KLAMAR / AFP via Getty Images/Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports
Russian goaltender Andrei Vasilevsky next to Vladimir Putin
Russia’s national hockey team has been banned from competing in events overseen by the sport’s biggest governing body since the country invaded Ukraine. However, that could change in the wake of a ruling that has led to a growing list of teams threatening the World Championship that’s scheduled to get underway last year.
Athletes who hail from Russia have repeatedly had to deal with the fallout of their country’s geopolitical maneuvers since the days of the Soviet Union, and that has been the case with those who’ve seen their ability to compete on an international stage restricted since it declared war on Ukraine in 2022.
The country was banned from sending an official delegation to the Olympics in 2024 and 2026, and its soccer team has also been prohibited from qualifying for the last two World Cups.
It’s never been a major player on the pitch, but the same cannot be said for the hockey rink, which Russia’s national team has also been banished from skating on during international tournaments since being exiled by the International Ice Hockey Federation over the invasion of its neighbor.
However, the IIHF was recently overruled by a court that has opened the door for Russia to return, and it has a major headache on its hands due to the backlash that decision has generated.
Multiple countries say they’ll refuse to play Russia at the IIHF World Championship after the team was reinstated
The Winter Olympics can currently lay claim to the title of the world’s premier hockey championship, but there’s plenty of prestige surrounding the World Championship that the IIHF organized for the first time in 1920 and has held on an annual basis since the 1930s.
No country has won more gold medals than the 28 Canada has taken home, but Russia sits in a close second place at 27 if you combine its total with the one secured by the Soviet Union; the two were tied before the former took first place with a victory in 2023, which marked the second year since the start of the latter’s ban.
However, things took an interesting turn last week when the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the IIHF failed to provide evidence concerning the “safety and security concerns” it cited to justify the continuation of the ban Russia has spent the past couple of years attempting to fight, and it ordered the governing body to reinstate the team for the 2026-27 season.
The World Championship is slated to kick off in Germany in May, and according to The Athletic, that ruling has sparked some major drama involving other teams that are also expected to compete for a medal.
On Monday, Finland announced it would refuse to play Russia if the two teams met in the tournament, and on Tuesday, five more squads took the same stance after Norway, Sweden, and Denmark firmed up the Nordic bloc that’s been supplemented by the solidarity of Latvia and Czechia.
As the outlet notes, the World Championship isn’t the only tournament that could be affected.
Turku, the Finnish city that was supposed to serve as a co-host of the juniors tournament in 2028, says it will back out if Russia is involved, and Canada’s government has pledged to uphold its stance of denying visas to Russian athletes ahead of a junior tournament that will get underway in Alberta at the end of December.
There’s theoretically a fair amount of time for the IIHF to attempt to sort this out, but it’s going to be very interesting to see how it ultimately handles the situation.