Denník N commentators: People have stress and work, MPs have gentlemanly manners and vacations – Denník N

The Slovak Ice Hockey Association said that our hockey players can play in the Russian KHL without any consequences for their career in the national team. Why is it a problem to play in the KHL? Horvatovič: Russia labeled Slovakia an enemy country, started a war, attacks civilian targets every day. The KHL is a competition de facto founded by Putin, financed by Gazprom. The clubs that play in it belong to the oligarchs, who were created and made money by Vladimir Putin. The first head of the KHL, Medvedev, and his successor, Rotenberg, are people from Putin’s closest circle. If one of the clubs does not have an oligarch, some local governor who belongs to Putin does. On the stadiums there are signs in support of the war, the letters Z. To say that politics is not related to sports is wrong in this context, and it is possible that hockey players can not perceive it. Are we unique in this as a country? We had an interview with a Finnish journalist who said that something like this is unimaginable in Finland, precisely because of the war in Ukraine. He explains it by the fact that our athletes are not politically educated enough. Javorský: I think it concerns eight hockey players. Finland is probably not the only one that took a different approach than Slovakia. I don’t remember all the countries that have done it, but it looks like we are really special at it and will eat the shame at the next international event. How do the hockey players explain it? Javorský: I heard one of them say that he does it for himself and for his family, he follows what is good for him. They are hockey players who had even less luck in history lessons than other people. I don’t think it’s shocking that they do it, there are eight of them, it’s not a big tragedy. It is much worse that they are supported by the Slovak Hockey Association. This is of much greater importance to the country than these few hockey players. What does the head of the union Miroslav Šatan say, whom I remember as a decent person? Horvatovič: Keeps the beaver silent. When the union announced that hockey players from the KHL could represent, it was a press release written in very boring official language, and then repeated by Satan’s spokesman. Ever since Miroslav Šatan has been the head of the hockey association, he has not been the type of chairman who knows or wants to communicate very much, which is not at all happy for the hockey association. I will also add to the hockey players: they say that they have no choice, because they have to support their families. However, an awful lot of Finnish and Swedish hockey players left that league, other places became available, teams were looking for new players. The surprising thing is that our players went there directly from North America, where I thought they could have at least caught something of value and could say that it is not right. I’m surprised that they can’t even evaluate the security point of view. Russia is not a safe country, and this will continue to apply more and more. The 11th anniversary of the tragic death of Pavel Demitra recently passed. It is no coincidence that a plane with an entire hockey team crashed in Russia. Let’s be aware that they are subject to This article is exclusive content for Denník N subscribers. Are you a subscriber? Log in