Alex Ovechkin appears in Russian campaign ad backing Putin and United Russia party
The NHL's all-time leading goalscorer appeared in a campaign advertisement for Russia's United Russia party supporting Vladimir Putin, according to reporting from The Guardian citing Russian business newspaper Vedomosti. Ovechkin, 40, has openly backed Putin for years but became more cautious after Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The appearance has prompted calls for league discipline, though no formal NHL statement has been reported.
Alex Ovechkin, the NHL's all-time leading goalscorer, appeared in a campaign advertisement for Russia's United Russia party supporting Vladimir Putin, according to reporting by The Guardian citing the Russian business newspaper Vedomosti. The ad featured Ovechkin alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan, and the leading parliamentary candidate on United Russia's slate.
The 40-year-old Capitals player has a documented history of public support for Putin. In 2017, Ovechkin launched Putin Team, a social movement intended to unite "people who are proud of their country and want to make Russia stronger," per The Guardian. He has previously praised Putin's "trust in and respect for his people, his fairness and righteousness, and the fact that he really cares."
Ovechkin's public posture shifted after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He began expressing hope that the conflict "was going to be over and we are going to be living in a good world," while continuing to describe Putin as "my president," according to The Guardian. Hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the war that followed the invasion.
Ovechkin signed a one-year contract extension with the Capitals in July, keeping him with the organization that drafted him first overall in 2004. He won the Stanley Cup as the Capitals' captain in 2018 and became the NHL's all-time leading goalscorer in 2025 after scoring his 895th goal, surpassing Wayne Gretzky's record that had stood since 1999.
The appearance in the United Russia campaign ad has prompted calls for league discipline, though no explicit NHL statement condemning the player or confirming an investigation has been reported. The fetched sources do not carry a statement from Ovechkin, the Capitals, or the league addressing the ad's context, his involvement, or any response the organization intends to take.
Alex Ovechkin, the NHL's all-time leading goalscorer, appeared in a United Russia party campaign ad alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan.
The tension now turns on whether the NHL issues a formal response or opens an investigation, and what authority the league claims over players' political speech conducted outside North America. The Capitals' silence and the league's next move will define how U.S. professional sports navigate the line between player autonomy and institutional accountability when a Hall of Fame player actively backs an authoritarian government during an ongoing conflict.
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Sources
Also reported by The Guardian, RMNB, Meduza, The Times of India. Independent coverage of the same development, found by search; not this story's sources.
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