Alexander Ovechkin appears in a campaign video for Vladimir Putin

Alex Ovechkin has never exactly hidden his admiration for Vladimir Putin, but his latest appearance in Russian political advertising is putting that relationship back in the spotlight.

The Washington Capitals superstar recently appeared in a campaign video for Russia’s ruling United Russia party, alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The video is part of United Russia’s campaign ahead of Russia’s September 18-20 State Duma elections, and Ovechkin was featured among a group of prominent Russians presented as supporters and “like-minded” figures surrounding Lavrov.

For Ovechkin, this isn't some out-of-the-blue political appearance. His public support for Putin dates back years. In 2017, the Capitals captain launched the “Putin Team” movement, an initiative explicitly designed to demonstrate support for the Russian president ahead of the 2018 election. Ovechkin insisted at the time that the movement was about supporting his country, rather than getting involved in politics, but there was little ambiguity about who the movement was supporting.

Ovechkin's relationship with Putin has also been a very public one. The two have appeared together on numerous occasions, and Ovechkin has openly discussed his personal relationship with the Russian president. Even after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, when Ovechkin was repeatedly asked about Putin, he stopped well short of directly condemning him. Instead, he spoke generally about wanting peace and said that the war was something he could not control.

That history makes this latest appearance particularly notable.

United Russia is not simply another political organization in Russia. It is the party closely associated with Putin and has dominated Russian politics for years. Ovechkin appearing in a campaign video for the party — and specifically being grouped with Lavrov — therefore carries considerably more political weight than simply being photographed with another Russian celebrity.

It also comes at an interesting point in Ovechkin's career. The 40-year-old has already cemented himself as one of the greatest hockey players ever, breaking Wayne Gretzky's NHL goal-scoring record in 2025. Putin publicly congratulated him after he scored his 895th goal, with Russian officials using the accomplishment as a source of national pride.

Ovechkin's hockey legacy is essentially untouchable at this point. His political legacy, however, remains considerably more complicated.

For years, there has been an effort to separate Ovechkin the hockey superstar from Ovechkin the Putin supporter. That became especially difficult after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. And now, by appearing in an election campaign video for Putin's ruling party alongside one of the Kremlin's most prominent officials, Ovechkin has once again placed that political association front and centre.

For a player who has spent the majority of his adult life in North America, Ovechkin has maintained remarkably strong ties to Russia and its political establishment. His latest appearance suggests that, despite the controversy surrounding Putin internationally, that connection isn't going away anytime soon.