Why Russia must be kept in the penalty box

Punishing individual members of a nation for what its leaders are doing can be an ethically troubling concept. It often targets people who have no access to the levers of power. People who themselves may even oppose their government’s policy. But, in doing so, it aims to force change by those who can make it happen.

It’s understandable why someone might feel some sympathy for the young Russians who will not be allowed to compete in Canada at next month’s world junior hockey tournament. But it is the right decision.

The ban was announced last week by Prime Minister Mark Carney. It came in the wake of a sports court ruling that an International Ice Hockey Federation ban on Russian athletes was unjustified.

Mr. Carney got it right. The court got it wrong.

Wayne Gretzky endorses decision to ban Russia from world juniors

Let no one forget why Russia was banned. The exclusion came after President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale, and illegal, invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which itself followed his takeover of the Crimean peninsula in 2014. This put Russia firmly outside the bounds of acceptable international behaviour. It made Russia, rightly, a pariah nation.

The results quickly flowed. Russian oligarchs had their yachts and foreign real estate seized. The country was sanctioned by the west. Some of its banks were removed from the SWIFT international payment system. Entertainers and athletes, including hockey players, faced bans.

Since then, Russia doubled down. The grinding war continues in Ukraine and a UN agency says that there have been 16,874 verified civilian deaths there, including 820 children.

Mr. Putin appears to be trying to outwait Western outrage. And he has found a receptive ear in United States President Donald Trump, who last month suspended some sanctions on Russia in order to import diesel from the country.

Russia has also had success in regaining access to international sport. Earlier this year the International Olympic Committee provisionally lifted a ban on Russian athletes, clearing the way for them to compete at the 2028 Olympic Games, in Los Angeles. This is wrong.

One of the most prominent Russian athletes, NHL star Alexander Ovechkin, said this week that fans want to see the best players at tournaments, including the world juniors. But he is an apologist for a vicious regime, one who recorded a pro-Putin video while also arguing that he is somehow in favour of “peace and love.”

It can be tempting to see sports bans as a different thing from other sanctions. Sport should not be politicized, the argument goes. But that ignores basic reality.

Was anyone who watched the 1972 Summit Series oblivious to the political frisson of Canada beating the Soviet Union? Of course not. And were Canadians particularly keen to beat the United States in Olympic hockey earlier this year, given Mr. Trump’s attacks on the country? Of course.

International sport – with its flags and national jerseys, its anthems and its bitter rivalries – is inherently political. In fact, it is a nice fantasy to imagine Ukraine shredding a Russian hockey team on the ice. But that can’t happen, because Ukraine is in a struggle for survival.

Sport is also a key part of the soft-power offensive wielded by nations. The calibre of a country’s athletes, the popularity of its musicians, the influence of its artists are all ways for it to stand tall and convey its stature to the world. Is there any doubt that, were the Russian hockey team to compete and win, Mr. Putin would try to wrap himself in their glories?

Nick Paumgarten: I’m an American, and I’m a hockey fanatic. It’s a strange time to be both

And that is why Russian athletes (or musicians, or artists) must be kept off the international stage. Ultimately, it’s not about them. They represent a country that is beyond the pale. They cannot be allowed to burnish its credentials.

A number of teams set to compete at the world juniors next month had already said they would not play against Russia. That was a principled stand but one that could easily have turned into a mess, with teams forfeiting matches and potentially allowing Russia to advance unchallenged. Simpler, and the right decision, is to exclude Russian players.

It’s true that those players had no role in launching a war that began when they were children. But they will have other chances and many have lucrative careers waiting for them.

Canadians should reserve their sympathy for young Ukrainians who can’t play hockey at all – because they are fighting and dying for their country’s freedom, in a conflict started by Russia.