Russia’s return to international hockey has run straight into a border. Speaking at the Commonwealth summit in Antigua on Tuesday, Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney made clear that no Russian team will be on the ice when his country stages the under-20 world championship this winter. Asked directly about that event, he answered that the Russians “will not be there.”
The tool Ottawa plans to use is immigration law: players and team staff from Russia or Belarus who would represent their state, with flag and anthem, are to be refused entry. The government said the measure targets state propaganda rather than ordinary people, and that it will last for as long as Moscow keeps fighting its war against Kyiv. Anyone entered as a neutral can still apply and will be judged individually.
The step is a response to the sports court in Lausanne. On 30 October, CAS lifted the exclusion that had been in force since the 2022 invasion and told the sport’s governing body to readmit Russia, starting with exactly this tournament. Moscow’s sports minister, Mikhail Degtyarev, hailed the verdict as binding; the IIHF admitted its disappointment yet promised to comply. Who may cross the Canadian border, though, is not decided in Lausanne.
Games will be played in Edmonton and in Red Deer between 26 December and 5 January. Ten countries are in the field, among them Germany and defending champions Sweden. Several of them, including the Swedes, Finns, Czechs and Latvians, had already announced a boycott of any game against Russia, and Norway has worried it could be squeezed out to make room for the Russians.
Hockey Canada welcomed the government’s stance and said its board would meet this week to decide on next steps. In Kyiv, foreign minister Andrii Sybiha had called on host nations to take precisely this route and simply refuse the visas. Alberta’s provincial government now says it will wait for the federation’s next move.
