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Russian captains with Scottish accents aside, Captain Marko Ramius, played by Sean Connery, stated the line shown in the image in the Hollywood adaptation of Tom Clancy's book, The Hunt for Red October. While he was talking about his crew's chances of surviving their escape and defection from the Soviet Union, one could have also applied those same odds to the IIHF's impending decision about reinstating Russia and Belarus into international ice hockey competitions in 2025-26. That decision was announced yesterday.

After meeting yesterday regarding reintegration, the IIHF announced that "the IIHF Council believes it is not yet safe to reintegrate the Russian and Belarusian National and Club Teams to its championships for the 2025-2026 season. As the current security conditions do not allow the necessary requirements for the organization of tournaments guaranteeing the safety of all, the IIHF must maintain the current status quo until further notice."

I'm not sure anyone would be surprised by this announcement given that Russia is still bombing Ukraine while Belarus cheers on their Russian neighbours, so this decision seemed like a no-brainer to most people. Had the IIHF reintegrated the two countries, I'm not saying that anything bad would come to its players or staff, but why would the IIHF want to risk any sort of liability if something did happen?

Dominik Hasek continued to be outspoken against the Russian attack in Ukraine, and I respect that he's speaking honestly and openly about his feelings over Russia's and Belarus' potential reinstatement to international hockey. On Twitter, he wrote,

"Until the Russian army leaves Ukraine and Russia takes full responsibility for all the lives lost and maimed and for all the damage caused during the war in Ukraine, no Russian athlete is allowed to compete. Every Russian athlete is unfortunately an advertisement for terrible Russian crimes. If these athletes, such as Russian hockey players, could play, it would cost a lot of human lives, including Russian ones. And we must not allow that. Human life is more than, an athlete's career."

You don't have to like Dominik Hasek as a player, but he's showing that he understands how the political machine in Russia uses sports and sporting achievements to bolster their messaging about how Russia is the greatest country on the planet. He's also showing intelligence by putting the safety and sanctity of human life above sporting events and athletic achievements. Like him or not, Dominik Hasek has a point that is difficult to debate.

Some of you will read this and have that mantra of "keep politics out of sports" running through your head. You're welcome to think that if you want, but that's not how life works. Sports is a microcosm of society, so you can see the very fabric of life sewn into sports. I'm not here to tell you who to vote for or which politicians are better or worse than others, but it's hard to keep politics out of sports when politics uses sports as a marketing tool in Russia.

In any case, it will be another full calendar year before Russia and Belarus will be reconsidered for reintegration into IIHF-sanctioned events as the first opportunity to discuss the matter will happen in May 2026 at the IIHF Council meeting ahead of the IIHF Annual Congress. My hope is that Russia will realize its wild miscalculation and withdraw from Ukraine sooner rather than later, but that seems like a pipe dream at this point after everything Russia has sunk into their siege of Ukraine. So much for "three days", right?

What shouldn't be forgotten is that the IIHF was a lot like Ukraine yeterday as they denied Russia and Belarus once again. Once again, we have proof that sports is a microcosm of society.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!