MOSCOW, February 5. /TASS/. The Russian national ice hockey team will play to the tune of "Katyusha," Russia’s most popular song in World War II, instead of the national anthem at the 2021 Ice Hockey World Championship in Latvia, a source in the Russian Hockey Federation (RHF) told TASS on Friday.
According to a ruling of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), Russian athletes are prohibited until December 2022 from participating in the world championships and Olympic Games under the national flag and to the tune of the national anthem. On January 14, the Athletes Commission of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) proposed using Katyusha song instead of the national anthem at the Olympic Games.
"Katyusha will be our anthem. It’s clear for everyone that it will be Katyusha," the source said.
"The details of the uniform are still being specified, but in terms of its design it will be exactly the same as it was at the 2018 Olympics," he said. "We are also specifying the words, which will be inscribed on the uniforms."
"I think that this issue will be discussed at the next meeting of the IIHF [the International Ice Hockey Federation] Council on February 10," the source said. "This issue has been repeatedly raised."
National anthems at the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships are played after every match in honor of the winners.
The 2021 Ice Hockey Championship will be hosted by the Latvian capital of Riga between May 21 and June 6. The championship will be played at two venues in Riga.
The main venue will be the Arena Riga and it will host Group B, two quarter-final games, the semi-final round and the medal round. The second venue will be the Olympic Sports Centre, which will be converted into a 6,000-capacity ice rink and will host Group A and two quarter-final games. All 16 participating teams will be housed in one hotel.
The Russian national team has been placed in Group A alongside the national teams from Sweden, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Slovakia, Denmark, Belarus and Great Britain. Group B lists the teams from Canada, Finland, the United States, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Italy and Kazakhstan.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland’s Lausanne upheld on December 17 WADA’s [the World Anti-Doping Agency] previous ruling on a number of sanctions against Russian sports.
According to the CAS decision as of December 17, 2020, Russian athletes were deprived of their right to participate in all World Championships, Olympic and Paralympic Games under the national flag of Russia for the two-year period.
The national anthem of Russia was also ruled out to be played at international sport tournaments in the course of the next two years, including at the upcoming Olympic Games in Japan this year.
The ruling of the Swiss-based court also stripped Russia of the right to bid for the organization of all international sports tournaments for the period of two years. WADA’s sanctions will be in force until December 2022.