Canadians care more about gold. Russians care more about politics.
The world juniors, little more than a hockey tournament here, has served as a political rallying call in Russia.
Media cheered as the Russian team powered past the USA and Sweden to face off against Canada on in the finals of the 2015 IIHF World Junior Championship.
“Canada is considered to be a political foe, and there are major Russian sports newspapers writing about nothing but Canadian fans cursing at Russian female and children fans,” said Russian sportswriter Slava Malamud.
Russian media were pushing for a gold-medal victory “in the lion’s den, and behind enemy lines, to show everybody that Russia is great and fearsome,” he added. “These are major newspapers I’m quoting, they’re not tabloids or blogs.”
Sanctions against Russia by Western countries, including Canada, over the Ukraine crisis have hit hard, along with dropping oil prices — the country’s main export. The Russian ruble’s fall has been so severe — it hit an eight-year low on Monday — that the country is slashing vodka prices by 16 per cent to combat steep inflation.
What looks dire from the outside, though, is not seen the same way inside Russia.
“Russians don’t necessarily think of their predicament in the world right now as grim,” Malamud said. “The state-controlled media displays Russia as heroic, defending traditional values and the Russian way of life.”
Russia’s advance to the finals has fit the story, making front page news on Metro Russia’s website and Russia Today’s list of top news for Monday, alongside updates on the AirAsia crash and jury selection in the Boston marathon bombing trial.
The tournament fed into a “cold war mentality” growing inside Russia, Malamud said.
One paper printed a cartoon featuring Russian President Vladimir Putin body checking President Barack Obama.
“In the wake of the Russian run-up to the game against the United States, the Russian media was all alight with headlines about, ‘Let’s show Obama,’ and that kind of stuff. As if Barack Obama cared about hockey and world juniors,” Malamud said.
The tournament isn’t as popular in Russia as it is in Canada, Malamud said, but past Russian success — including beating Canada for world junior gold in 2011 — has spurred enthusiasm.
Source:: Metro News
