WASHINGTON (AP) — After NHL career goal-scoring leader Alex Ovechkin appeared in an ad for Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party that came to light this week, the Washington Capitals said their long-time captain was asked to participate in the video campaign while back in his home country this summer.
“Alex Ovechkin is a Russian citizen who lives in Moscow with his family during the offseason and will live there following his retirement," team spokesperson Sergey Kocharov said Tuesday in a statement sent to The Associated Press. “As the longest-tenured athlete in Washington, D.C., and a pillar of the community, his focus and ours is on the season ahead and the continued impact he makes on the ice and in our city.”
Ovechkin is seen in the commercial standing behind Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Viacheslav “Slava” Fetisov also participated, leading to backlash on social media from fellow Hall of Famer Dominik Hasek, who called it support for Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The NHL deferred to the Capitals when asked for comment. Ovechkin is expected to be made available to reporters on Thursday when training camp opens ahead of his 22nd NHL season.
Ovechkin, who turns 41 on Thursday, previously voiced support for the Russian president in 2017 when he started a social movement called the “Putin Team.” At the time, he told reporters from the AP and The Washington Post, “I just support my country.”
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Ovechkin said, “Please, no more war,” when asked about the situation. Asked then about his relationship with Putin, Ovechkin said: “He’s my president, but I’m not in politics. I’m an athlete.”
Putin has cracked down on dissent in the years since launching what he calls a special military operation in Ukraine, including punishment for referring to it as a war.
Ovechkin broke Wayne Gretzky's goals record in April 2024 with his 895th. He has scored 929 in his career, which began in 2005 after the Capitals took him with the first pick in the 2004 draft.
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FILE - Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin reacts after he was named the first star after an NHL hockey game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, April 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday went after the Supreme Court after it rejected his push to restrict mail-in voting in this year’s midterms, saying justices who opposed him were “not the people I interviewed.”
His social media missive was just the latest in a long history of Trump assailing justices, particularly those he had nominated, who ruled against him on his administration's most prominent initiatives. The president has been publicly furious with the Supreme Court over its decisions against restricting birthright citizenship and his ability to issue tariffs unilaterally.
On mail-in voting, the Trump administration had made a last-minute push to have the U.S. Postal Service play a central role in deciding who would be able to receive a ballot. But state election officials argued there was not enough time to make the changes for the Nov. 3 midterm elections — and said their systems were already secure and accurate.
The court ruled late Monday in an emergency order that the restrictions would most likely lose in court, at least for this year’s election.
“The Court’s inability and unwillingness to do the right thing for our Country will go down, in a very negative way, in the annals of History,” Trump wrote in a lengthy social media post Tuesday. “This Supreme Court is bullied and cajoled by the Radical Left into making decisions that have set America back at least a hundred years.”
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas publicly dissented from the order, and Trump on Tuesday called them “legends both.” Trump has nominated three of the justices on the Supreme Court — Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh.
“These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are merely a shell of their original selves,” Trump said. He asserted that the court "is costing the United States Trillions of Dollars with shockingly bad rulings that are of such magnitude that it won’t be easily possible for our Country to recover or heal.”
Attorney General Todd Blanche said later Tuesday that the administration was going to comply with the decision but “that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to do everything in this administration that we can to make sure that there are free and fair elections.”
Blanche also defended Trump's commentary about the court, dismissing the idea that it was undermining the court's independence and saying it was part of the democratic process for the president to be critical of another branch of government.
“He has every right and indeed, he should communicate his concerns with the Supreme Court whenever he has them," Blanche said at the White House. “This isn’t the first time that he’s done it, and it won’t be the last.”
The president has a lengthy track record of attacking judges, often very personally, who issue decisions that go against his wishes, and Trump has long viewed his legal appointments as owing loyalty to the person who nominated them to the bench.
So as Barrett, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch ruled against Trump at varying points over the years, the president has not hesitated to go after them publicly, while praising them if they sided with him in a case.
Yet this court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, has ruled in favor of Trump on several of his priorities, most notably the 2024 decision from the court's conservative majority that said former presidents are presumptively entitled to immunity for all official acts. That paved the way for Trump to run for reelection without threat of a criminal trial that year.
Trump has opposed mail voting and falsely blamed fraud associated with mail voting for his 2020 election loss. A report by the Brookings Institution published in 2025 found that mail voting fraud occurred in only about four cases out of every 10 million mail ballots cast.
Roughly a third of voters use mail ballots, and mail voting has already begun in some states. The decision allows states to continue sending out mail ballots under the same processes they’ve used for years.
On Tuesday, Trump also complained that the decision took too long to issue.
“It is not easy for me to write this criticism of the United States Supreme Court — it will likely cost me dearly for years to come — but I feel it my obligation and duty, as President, to do so for the America we love!” Trump said.
Associated Press writer Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.
U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche takes questions during a news briefing in the Rose Garden of the White House, Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
FILE - An election worker reaches for an unopened ballot during sorting at the Clackamas County Elections office, Nov. 7, 2024, in Oregon City, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)
President Donald Trump walks from Marine One to his limousine upon his arrival at the Ellipse just outside of the White House, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
