MOSCOW, February 15. /TASS/. The return of Russian hockey to international play hinges on resolving the situation with CSKA goalkeeper Ivan Fedotov, Luc Tardiff, the president of the International Ice Hockey Federation, told TASS on Thursday.

The Russian Ice Hockey Federation published an open letter to the IIHF from Russian junior ice hockey teams asking to clarify the reason behind their suspension from the world championships.

"Our interlocutor is our Federation members," Tardiff stated. "IIHF has 83 Federations and around 2 million Hockey players registered. We read attentively their letter but will never answer those kind of letters."

"Our main concern… in Russia everybody seems to forget or ignore deliberately that there is an ongoing disciplinary case not solved at all [and it’s about] Fedotov," the IIHF chief stated.

On August 4, 2023, the IIHF sided with the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Philadelphia Flyers in their dispute with CSKA Moscow over the rights to Ivan Fedotov - the American club moved his contract from the 2022/23 season to the 2023/24 season due to the hockey player's service in the army.

The International Ice Hockey Federation Congress, hosted by the Finnish city of Tampere on May 27, 2022, voted to exclude the national teams of Russia and Belarus from the 2023 World Championship, and the two teams were likewise sidelined at the 2022 Ice Hockey World Championship, due to the developments in Ukraine.

IOC sanctions against Russia

On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in international tournaments, citing Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine as the reason.

Following the IOC’s recommendations in late February 2022, the majority of global sports federations decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sports tournaments.

In late March, 2023, the IOC recommended to permit individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in international sports tournaments, but only under certain conditions. Specifically, athletes from the two countries should not be "actively supporting" Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and must compete under a neutral status. Russia and Belarus were also banned from participating in international team events.