Russia's international hockey ban lifted, prompting backlash from IIHF, other countries: 'Incomprehensible'

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled on Friday that Russian teams can compete in next year’s men’s and women’s world championships, overturning the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF)’s decisions to exclude them from its competitions.

The IIHF has excluded Russia, which has won ​five IIHF world titles as an independent nation, from most international ice hockey competitions since 2022 following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Russia did not compete in Olympic hockey earlier this year, the first since 2014 which had NHL players, nor was it included in the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off. Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, four days after Olympic competition ended that year.

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The decision was not met with a warm reception from the IIHF and several other countries, including Canada, which will host the World Junior Championships later this year.

“Canada maintains, as it has since 2022, that Russia should not be represented in international sport competitions while Russia’s illegal and unjustifiable full-scale invasion against Ukraine continues,” Canada’s Secretary of State for sport, Adam van Koeverden, said, via The Athletic. “Canada will maintain restrictions on the participation of Russian athletes at events hosted in Canada that receive funding from the Government of Canada and explore further options to ensure that the Russian government is held accountable.”

“The IIHF disagrees with this aspect of the ruling ​and maintains that its decisions were necessary to protect the safety and security of all participants and safeguard the integrity of its competitions,” ‌the ⁠federation said.

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In a brief statement, CAS cited a lack of sufficient evidence to support the IIHF’s security concerns. Russia’s sports minister, Mikhail Degtyarev, told state television channel Vesti that “discrimination in hockey has been brought to an end,” and “this place rightfully belongs to us.”

Ukraine’s ice hockey federation denounced the ruling while respecting the authority of the CAS.

“We wish to express deep outrage at this decision, taken amid a full-scale war. The threats that were the reason for suspending Russian teams in 2022 have not disappeared. On the contrary, they have only intensified,” the federation said on its website.

“We believe that the safety of participants and ​the integrity of international sport ​cannot be considered separately ⁠from the realities of the war that Russia continues to wage against Ukraine.”

Other countries to oppose the decision include Germany, Finland, Czechia, Sweden and Austria.

The first tournament to be affected by the change will be the World Juniors, and Germany will host the World Championships next year.

Notable NHL players include Alex Ovechkin, Nikita Kucherov, Kirill Kaprizov, Andrei Svechnikov and Artemi Panarin, among others.

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.