Faceoffs and power plays aren’t just hockey terms — they’re the language of international diplomacy.
This week Russian President Vladimir Putin revived the Cold War tradition of taking geopolitics onto the ice, suggesting in a call to President Donald Trump that American and Russian skaters play matches against each other.
While the challenge is yet to be accepted, it’s an idea with deep roots in the Soviet era when hockey became a proxy arena in which to address geopolitical tensions. Most notably for Americans, the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” saw a largely amateur American team defeat the mighty Soviet “Red Machine.”
But rather than seeking “war by other means” — as the sport is often known — Russia’s hockey fanatic leader likely wants to use the rink as a way to end his country’s pariah status, both in terms of politics and sport, experts say.
“Putin’s overarching goal is to break out of diplomatic isolation,” said Gary Smith, a former Canadian diplomat posted to Moscow who understands hockey diplomacy better than most.
As a young career diplomat in Moscow in 1972, Smith was central to brokering the epic “Summit Series” that helped build relations between the Soviet Union and Canada. “This is a clever move by Putin,” he told NBC News. “Sports and hockey in particular are very important to him.”
These overtures are part of a rapid warming between Moscow and Washington during Trump’s second term.
Until now, Russia has endured outcast status in the West following Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The United States led Western countries in festooning even more sanctions on the Kremlin. Multinational companies and their consumers levied boycotts and protests. And sporting organizations — including hockey — banned athletes from Russia and its ally Belarus.
In the past few months, however, Trump has held several calls with his Russian counterpart, offering valuable concessions in his attempt to end the war. Russia watchers believe that the Kremlin sees in Trump a unique opportunity to repeal sanctions against it while achieving a favorable outcome in ceasefire negotiations.
In a statement Tuesday, the Kremlin said that during their most recent call Trump “supported” Putin’s idea to organize hockey games between Russian and American players in the NHL and Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League, or KHL. As in the Summit Series of 1972, these matches should be played in both countries, the Kremlin said.
Asked about this Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that hockey was mentioned during the call, but brushed off the idea: “We’re more interested in securing a peace deal than scheduling hockey games right now.”
Throughout history, however, sports and diplomacy have been far from mutually exclusive: see also the “ping pong” diplomacy that paved the way for President Richard Nixon’s visit to Beijing in 1972.
“I think the hockey talk is smart strategy by Putin,” said Lawrence Martin, author of “The Red Machine: the Soviet Quest to Dominate Canada’s Game.” “Sport lowers the political temperature. It helps normalize relations between adversaries.”
Putin likely hopes these matches will help “allay America’s traditional hostility to Russia and add another strand to the alliance that he and Trump are creating by generating a sense of camaraderie and partnership between their populations,” said Roy MacSkimming in his book “Cold War: The Amazing Canada-Soviet Hockey Series of 1972.”
He added, “I think Putin is once again trying to use his influence or hold over Trump, whichever it is, to cozy up to Americans by proposing these hockey games.”
In response to a request for comment, both on the prospect of Russo-American hockey games, and criticisms that Trump has been overly warm to Putin, National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes told NBC News that “President Trump is the only American president strong enough to look both friends and adversaries in the eyes and make deals that put America First.”
Ultimately, Putin’s suggestion serves as “a useful reminder that what the Kremlin wants is not only — perhaps even mainly — a resolution of the war in Ukraine but a wider normalization of relations with the USA,” said Mark Galeotti, a Putin expert who heads the British consultancy Mayak Intelligence.
It’s not just sanctions and business interests. Putin dearly wants to end Russia’s exile from major sporting competitions — first imposed in 2019 over allegations of state-sponsored doping, and then in 2022 in reaction to his invasion of Ukraine.
One governing body that banned Russian athletes was the International Ice Hockey Federation, or IIHF, which covers the Olympics and World Championships.
“We have just become aware of the conversation between President Trump and President Putin,” the NHL said in a statement sent to The Associated Press. “Obviously, we were not a party to those discussions, and it would be inappropriate for us to comment at this time.”
That caution hints at the myriad legal muddles that the proposed hockey games might stir, according to Stephen Hardy, a former hockey player and coach-turned-writer, who co-authored 2018’s “Hockey: A Global History.”
“Any North American player who competes against a banned team runs the risk of personal ineligibility,” he said, raising skepticism as to whether the games will actually ever play out.
“Like most politics, this is mostly posturing.”