Jānis Kalniņš’s name is also immediately used for Russian propaganda purposes – Hockey – Apollo.lv – Sports

Last week, when the Latvian hockey family was rocked by the announcement of Moscow “Spartak” about the addition of Mika Indraš to the team, the Russian hockey media “Allhockey” rushed to defend the hockey player against critics, stressing that Europe “discriminates” in the KHL.

Now, when Jānis Kalniņš moved to the occupier league, this hockey news media has once again begun to glorify the specific decision.

The author Vladislavs Utkins has prepared an article with the title “Kalniņš shows a masterclass. He spat on everything and signed a contract with Amur”.

So, according to this author, the master class is spitting on the Latvian national team, as well as ignoring Latvian legislation, which prohibits athletes from competing in Russian-based competitions. In short, Latvia and LHF – the bad ones, KHL and Russia – the good ones.

Departing for a moment from the article about Kalniņa, this same author has created a publication in which he condemns the LHF for Indraš’s precedent, not the player or the team.

Returning to the publication about Kalniņa, the author lists the previous progress of the goalkeeper at length and extensively, emphasizing that it was already too late to sign the contract elsewhere. He also analyzes this transaction from the perspective of “Amur”.

However, in the end, the author looks back at what the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Latvia, Edgars Rinkēvičs, said after Indraš’s statement about not playing.

“Thanks to Mikas Indraš for the explanation. A reminder to us of what disgusting provocations are carried out [Krievijas] propaganda, we don’t get caught,” Rinkēvičs commented on the incident on his Facebook account.

The answer is simple – no! Kalniņš’s patriotism was trumped by a more financially advantageous offer, which the hockey player himself has indirectly said. That’s it. But the author of the article does not miss the opportunity to portray Latvia and LHF in a bad light.

It is interesting – why are such articles not made about other foreigners who join the KHL? In the same “Amur” you can find the Czech forward Michals Jordan, but “Allhockey” chooses to defend only the hockey players of its closest neighboring country, who choose to go against the national legislation…

Russian atrocities in Ukraine are condemned in any civilized country. Presumably, no one patted the aforementioned Jordan on the head for playing in the KHL. Back in May, a Swedish sports journalist sharply criticized the Swedish and Finnish hockey players who ended the season in the KHL. However, only Latvian hockey players earn special “protection”. It is also a propaganda tool that tries to sow the idea in the minds of the readers of this article that the source of “all evil” is Latvian legislation and LHF.