A recent call between US president Donald Trump and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin has revived the Cold War tradition of using sports to facilitate geopolitics, with the Kremlin reporting that a contest between Russian and American skaters was discussed during a lengthy conversation between the two leaders on 18 March.
According to Moscow, Trump supported Putin’s suggestion for a match involving players from America’s National Hockey League and Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).
The call followed the recent Four Nations ice hockey tournament in Canada, which also involved the USA, Sweden and Finland, and from which Russia was excluded, much to Putin’s chagrin. Canada may have won the tournament, but it is the Russian leader who looks to have pulled off an “ankle breaker” with his skilful manoeuvring.
Russia may have been banned by the International Ice Hockey Federation since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but that hasn’t dissuaded Putin from suggesting a sporting meet to facilitate further dialogue. Afterall, Putin’s love of hockey is well known (it is apparently his favourite sport and he is a keen player), so the use of so-called “ice hockey diplomacy” would potentially give him a way to break out of diplomatic isolation, as the two country’s discuss ways to bring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to an end. Not to mention the opportunity for bragging rights over the USA should Russia be victorious on the rink!
Russia is no stranger to the use of sport to boost its reputation on the world stage, and it is easy to forget that Russia hosted the Olympics in 2014 and the FIFA World Cup in 2018, just four years before its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
While the challenge is yet to be accepted (according to the Kremlin, Trump is keen… but they would say that!), the use of sport in diplomacy between the two nations has a long history rooted in the Cold War. For the Soviets, hockey became a proxy arena in which to address geopolitical tensions and several high-profile competitions (most notably for the Americans the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” which saw a largely amateur American team defeat the mighty Soviet “Red Machine) took place between the two sides.
The most flourishing period for “ice hockey diplomacy” occurred in 1972, when Canada and the USSR organized an eight-game “Summit Series”, aiming to forge closer ties between the two states, while between 1958 and 1985, a dual track meet series occurred almost annually between the USSR and the US. However, both sides were equally willing to withdraw their teams from participation, with the boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics by the USA followed by the Soviet Union’s reciprocal boycott of the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
In the past few months, Trump has held several calls with Putin, and offered a number of concessions in his attempt to bring Russia to the negotiating table. Battling it out on the ice might not seem a priority for either nation or an obvious move to thaw tensions. However, sport as a soft power tool of diplomacy has been used successfully in the past to foster a climate of cooperation and dialogue between rivals, from the USA and USSR, to North and South Korea (through ping pong) and India and Pakistan (through cricket).
For Putin, sport could help to ease Russia’s re-entry into the global community, especially if Trump is keen for Russia to be part of the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympics which will both be held in the USA. The Kremlin sees a unique opportunity to use Putin’s influence with Trump to bring pressure to repeal sanctions against it while achieving a positive outcome in ceasefire negotiations. Trump has repeatedly promised to end the war in Ukraine swiftly, and while the jury is certainly out on whether he will be able to achieve his goal, if a simple hockey match can help to bridge the gap and bring peace then it’s surely worth considering.
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David Little is a Partner at Bishop & Sewell in our expert Sports Law and Corporate & Commercial teams. If you would like to contact him, please call on either 07968 027343 or 020 7631 4141 or email: company@bishopandsewell.co.uk.
The above is accurate as at 25 March 2025. The information above may be subject to change.
The content of this note should not be considered legal advice and each matter should be considered on a case-by-case basis.
