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Can we just deport him? And no I am not talking about a Somalian, but Alexander Ovechkin. He just appeared in a Russian political ad. When asked why he did that he replied, “I’m Russian, I support my country”. But here’s the thing the west and to a lesser extent the US is at war with Russia. Undeclared and without ground troops, but we are contributing financing, seized Russian assets, and have and probably still provide intelligence to the Ukrainian side. I think supporting a foreign government at war with America is perfectly fine grounds to deport someone.
The counter argument and I think a reasonable opinion for letting him stay is that cultural exchange makes peace easier. So there are solid grounds for letting him stay. I probably take the opinion that letting him play hockey in the US is better for US foreign policy than deportation.
From a cultural war perspective I would love Trump to deport him and make the lefties who “support Ukraine” make arguments for why Ovechkin in ICE shackles is a bad thing. Meh “free speech”. I did the AI thing and it sounds like he doesn’t have US citizenship but if he did he would make a perfect test case for denaturalization. Declaring yourself to have loyalties to a foreign government at war with the US seems absolutely perfect for denaturalization.
Also, nice culture war on Trump is a Russian agent by deporting a Russian. And it fits with the meme “we need them for the sports ball team”.
He’s just a perfect test case for deportation since his politics are against the US left instead of their Hamas adjacent friends who a broad swath of the left supports.
First - we don't want to. Obviously Trump is not suffering by the sand in the vagina syndrome (real idiom from my country btw) that Macron, Ursula and Boris have on the topic.
Second - Russia is not in war with the USA and this is why USA is treating them ambivalently - i have often said that USA - RU alliance is too natural for it not to happen eventually. Yes Washington is making Moscow's life harder when it is low cost and for the lulz, but they don't really give a fuck about it. Which I think even people close to Zelensky start to realize, even if he is too dense to see it.
Third - unlike some of the elite human capital that is better candidate to be deported - he is not a parasite, he is not a drain on the safety net, not breaking any laws, he is culturally integrated, making a good salary - so why bother.
Because he broke the law. We actually do have Lavrov sanctioned. And let’s be clear we are at war with Russia. Saying we are not at War is using a constitutional rule that we haven’t followed for decades.
“I don’t want people aided people we at war with in the US” is perfectly fine for me.
Ovechkin is actually a drain on the US. Every dollar he earns playing hockey will be repatriated back to Russia. I doubt he moves the needle on NHL revenue and some other player would be elevated to star if he wasn’t in the game. Some white Candian or American would get paid his money if we deported him.
And quite honestly I am sick and tired of foreigners showing up in America and thinking they get to do politics immediately in the US and I just love making a high profile example on this.
Repeating lets be clear many times doesn't make the following statement any truer. Not every minor geopolitical adversity is war.
But we are doing military things against Russia. Intelligence and command. Those are overt military acts. Rich countries prefer to provide financing than blood when they can.
Repeating it’s not war does not make it not war.
Plus he doesn't even address the main argument in favor of doing it IE, it would be extremely funny contextually to deport him.
There is a group on the right that find unchallenged American power as disturbing because in my view they rationally see America flexing the full use of its resources as a sign of how much America could limit freedom if it would choose to. Which became reality during COVID. Therefore, supporting even an evil Russia is still preferable to unrestrained American power.
I’ve come to a belief that you need to put all your eggs in winning America.
I do agree it would be funny, but in winning America I am on board with deporting all enemies of the state. And Ovechkin is an enemy of the state.
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