Russia’s Hockey Team Raises Eyebrows With Throwback USSR Jerseys
- Finland’s former premier called move ‘an offensive gesture’
- The Soviet team was the dominant hockey power of its era
Russian ice hockey players during the Euro Hockey Tour’s Channel One Cup in Moscow on Dec. 19.
Photographer: Alexander Nemenov/AFP/Getty Images
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Russia’s national ice hockey team sparked outrage in northern Europe by wearing throwback jerseys from its Soviet past during an overtime loss to Finland Sunday, amid rising tensions between the Kremlin and the West.
The uniforms worn in Euro Hockey Tour’s Channel One Cup in Moscow had CCCP, or USSR in the Cyrillic alphabet, emblazoned across the chest, prompting Finland’s former Prime Minister Alexander Stubb to tweet that the nod to the Soviet regime was “an offensive gesture that does not belong to sport or anywhere else.”