Russian ice hockey champion calls Latvia's "bronze" at World Cup 2023 a "greater merit" of Russia

Andrey Nazarov, former coach of the Ukrainian national ice hockey team, explained Latvia's historic bronze medal at the 2023 World Cup by the fact that they allegedly learned everything from the Russians. The Chelyabinsk native noted with pathos that many players and coaches of the Baltic team had long played in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), which was created by Russia.

Nazarov said this in an interview with Championship.com. The 1993 Russian champion with Dynamo Moscow reminded in the best traditions of Russian propaganda about the hockey school of the USSR and Russia, which brought up future winners of the world championship.

"Of course, the first medals of the Latvian national team in the history of World Championships is a great success for the country. But let's not forget whose merit it is mostly. The merit of the KHL in the development of the Latvian coaching school and Latvian players is obvious. Most of them sat in Russia on fat contracts and sometimes undeservedly worked for Russian teams, gaining experience and skills that they then transferred to the Latvian national team. In essence, this is where Latvians learned to play hockey properly, and someone learned the coaching trade. And this has been going on for decades," Nazarov said.

Previously, he stated that Russia was removed from the World Hockey Championship, because "the organizers were afraid of us, afraid that we would become the champions" (Russia last won the championship in 2014 - Ed.). In turn, Olympic champion Alexander Kozhevnikov called World Cup-2023 the championship of the yard in the absence of Russia, and also spoke offensively about Latvia. And hockey legend Vyacheslav Fetisov considers the Russians, who discuss World Cup 2023, criminals.

As reported by OBOZREVATEL, the World-2023 champion is the Canadian national team, which in the final match defeated another sensation of the current mundial - Germany (5:2). Former Russian head coach Vladimir Krikunov responded to the victory of the North Americans with the words, "They don't have long to live. And Olympic champion Andrei Kovalenko was outraged by the broadcast of matches of the tournament in the aggressor country and offered to steal the broadcasts.

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