'I support ​my country': Ovechkin defends appearance in controversial United Russia ad

[p][b]"I'm Russian, and I support my country," [/b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/ovechkin-alexander/6s0ms3DP/"]Ovechkin[/a], ‌the NHL's all-time leading goalscorer, told reporters at ‌the [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/washington-capitals/UND9nmoG/"]Washington Capitals[/a]' media day.[/p][p][b]"I'm for peace and love, and I ‌hope in the world it doesn't matter who you ‌are. I hope everybody understands, everybody wants peace, and everybody hopes everything is going to be okay in the world."[/b][/p][p]Russia will hold ‌a parliamentary election from September 18th ⁠to 20th, the first since ‌it launched its full-scale war in Ukraine in February 2022.[/p][p]Ovechkin, who ​can be seen standing behind Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the video, said he was ​asked to participate and did not hesitate to agree. He added that he will live in Russia following the ⁠end of his career.[/p][embed guid="2db5054d-7762-41bd-993c-9cc27e3703bf" url="https://x.com/visegrad24/status/2099528184500723775" social-type="twitter" /][p][b]"As ​soon as I'm done playing hockey, I'm probably going to stay there,"[/b] he said.[/p][p][b]"I'm gonna live there, my kids gonna live there, family. I'm for peace and love, and ‌I hope everything's going to be okay."[/b][/p][p]Ovechkin has faced scrutiny over his longstanding ties to Putin as Russia wages war in Ukraine. In 2017, he formed a public movement in support of Putin, and his Instagram profile picture is a photo of him and the Russian president.[/p][p]He called for peace in February 2022 following his home country's invasion of Ukraine. When asked about his support for ‌Putin at the time, he said, [b]"Well, he is my president. ​But... I am not in politics. I am an ‌athlete and... I hope everything is going to be done soon."[/b][/p][p]Ovechkin, who turned 41 on Thursday, has scored 929 goals in 1,573 regular-season NHL games, and the upcoming season will be his 22nd in the ⁠league. He led the ⁠Capitals to a Stanley ‌Cup in 2018.[/p][p][b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/hockey/canada/nhl/"]Follow the upcoming NHL season with Flashscore.[/a][/b][/p]