The Russians were already absent at last year’s senior championship, this year will be no different. The tournament was originally supposed to be held in St. Petersburg, but Russia was withdrawn as host. The same was the case with the past U20 championship at the turn of the year, which was originally supposed to be hosted by Omsk and Novosibirsk, but ended up being played in Halifax and Moncton, Canada.
“How is it that we have 55 players in North America, no one harms them, and you don’t allow us to hold the World Cup in Omsk and Novosibirsk?” the 70-year-old Tretyak brags in an interview with Russian TV station Vesti Voronezh.
The former excellent goalkeeper, who also acts as a member of the State Duma for the United Russia party, then shocked by stating why the Russian hockey team should be accepted back on the scene.
“Everyone keeps repeating ‘security’, but what kind of security are they talking about? Nothing happened to a single Ukrainian in our country, everything is peaceful in our country. In general, these are just excuses from them,” he adds to the IIHF, but he no longer talks about thousands victims of Ukrainians in their homeland for more than a year of war provoked by Russia.
In February, Tretyak received sanctions from the Canadian government as part of the latest round of punishments for Russian officials over the war in Ukraine. Sanctions include the freezing of assets as well as the prohibition of business transactions outside the Russian Federation.
