Artemi Panarin criticizes Vladimir Putin in Russian interview

In a recent interview, Artemi Panarin became one of the first Russian athletes to criticize Vladimir Putin.

USA Today reports that, in an interview conducted on YouTube in Russian, New York Rangers forward Artemi Panarin discussed his disillusionment with Vladimir Putin’s regime. A full translation has not been made readily available, but enough dialogue has been translated to indicate that Panarin does not support the president of his home country. He stated that he doesn’t like the “lawlessness” in Russia and that “all the major brains have already left.”

To clarify his comments, there definitely is lawless behavior in Russian daily life, across the world’s biggest country. I’m definitely not gonna provide a link, but I also won’t discourage you from searching “Russian insurance fraud” on YouTube.

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Panarin criticizing Vladimir Putin is really significant. On the contrary, Alex Ovechkin, one of Russia’s greatest athletes in the post-Soviet era, has consistently and proudly supported Putin.

A.J. Perez of USA Today notes that Ovechkin started “Putin Team” in 2017 and was one of many Russian athletes to support the president in his reelection campaign that year “to show everyone a strong and united Russia.”

The country is essentially “united” already because dissent is illegal in Russia. Protesters and people who seem dangerous to the state are put in penal colonies. If you repeatedly disobey the law against protest or the country’s ban on homosexuality, you will likely be subject to incarceration in a penal colony. Also known in the Soviet Era as a gulag.

This is not make-believe and it’s what Panarin probably discusses more in-depth with his fellow countryman, journalist Alexander Golovin.

This adds to the significance of his interview and open disdain for Putin. Panarin is likely exempt from any punishment the Kremlin would usually handout, especially since Panarin doesn’t live in Russia at least nine months out of the year.

It doesn’t seem, though, that Panarin is going to renounce his citizenship any time soon. In regards to people having left Russia, he thinks “it shouldn’t be that way.”

It’s also interesting that this comes after his move to New York. With a bigger market than he had in Columbus, perhaps he’s looking for a bigger role in the world of hockey and sports than just as a sniper.

He is already evolving into a global superstar and wants to shed whatever impressions people have about him and his home country. In hindsight, that billboard offering Panarin free vodka for life was pretty ignorant. He probably drinks Manhattans.