"What is there to play?" Russian Olympic champion calls participants of the 2024 World Cup Papuans

Two-time Olympic champion Alexander Kozhevnikov has made an insulting remark about the participants of the World Ice Hockey Championship, which ended on May 26 in the Czech Republic. The former hockey player and an accomplice of Vladimir Putin's dictatorial regime made a nonsense claim that only the Russian national team is capable of motivating Canadians.

Kozhevnikov said this in an interview with Sovetsky Sport, commenting on the fact that the North Americans were left without medals for the first time since 2018. The winner of the Sarajevo '84 and Calgary '88 Games called the Canadians' rivals in the tournament Papuans, without specifying who he was referring to.

"It's okay. They came to rest - Americans and Canadians alike. The Russians have been gone for two years, so they have no incentive to win. What is there to play with the Papuans? The season is hard, long, maybe they will go somewhere else to rest. They rarely come to Europe. They have no incentive to play without the Russian national team," Kozhevnikov said.

Earlier, former USSR national team player Boris Mikhailov called the World Hockey Championship incomplete without Russia. And Andrey Nazarov called it "the height of cynicism" that the Czech Republic had surpassed Russia in terms of the number of World Cup medals.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, a historical record of the competition was set at the 2024 World Ice Hockey Championship in the Czech Republic.

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