Leaving aside Putin’s age-old critic, chess grandmaster Garri Kasparov, Igor Denisov, the recent captain of Russia’s national football team, has now become perhaps the most famous athlete to publicly criticize Putin’s aggression in Ukraine.
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“What we are doing now (in Ukraine) is a disaster. Absolute horror, “Denisov said in an interview with the Nobel channel.
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“I don’t know if I’ll go to jail for my words or they’ll kill me. But I just say it the way it is, “he said, noting that he was well aware of the consequences for open public criticism of aggression in Ukraine in Russia today.
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“These events are a disaster. Complete horror.”
Former captain of Russia’s national football Igor Denisov has spoken out against Putin’s brutal war on Ukraine.https://t.co/c6DaHuaT6f
— POLITICOEurope (@POLITICOEurope) June 15, 2022
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The former footballer also admitted in an interview, sent a letter to Putin in which he wrote that he was willing to kneel before the president to stop the brutal war in Ukraine.
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Now 38-year-old Denisov participated in one of the greatest successes of Russian football in recent decades, when Zenit St. Petersburg won the UEFA Cup in 2008 alongside Czech teammate Radek Šírl. He himself contributed a goal in the final to a victory over the Glasgow Rangers 2: 0. He played with the national team at EURO 2012 and WC 2014.
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Recently, Russian football representative Naděžda Karpovová made a similar brave statement. “I can’t look at the inhumanity and be quiet. I do not know what would happen to me if I were in Russia now, but I feel a responsibility to speak openly. Putin took everything from us, he took our future from us, “she told the British newspaper The Guardian.
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A few of her male colleagues also indicated short-term courage. Dynamo Moscow Fyodor Smolov wrote “Not War” on his Instagram after the invasion. But he has been silent ever since. Alexander Sobolyov of Spartak Moscow also wrote a similar report, but deleted it after a few minutes.
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“Not war,” elite Russian tennis player Andrei Rublyov also wrote on camera during a tournament in Dubai.
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On the other hand, there is a whole host of Russian athletes and sports legends who hold on to the bass regime. They take part in opulent propaganda shows and some of them publicly support the occupation of Ukraine in interviews in the media.
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