New York Rangers forward Artemi Panarin posted a photo on Instagram on Thursday showing Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was arrested on Sunday several months after being poisoned.
Panarin, a native Russian, posted the photo of Navalny, his wife and their two children with the caption “Freedom for Navalny.”
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Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner and the most notorious critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was arrested on Sunday when he returned from Germany to Russia, where he spent five months recovering from the poisoning of nervous drugs he was carrying. blame the Kremlin.
Panarin declined to comment further on the post through a Rangers spokesman, ESPN reported.
This is not the first time the Rangers’ alternative captain has spoken out against Putin. In a 2019 interview, he criticized the Russian president, saying he “no longer understands what is right and what is wrong”.
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“Psychologically, it is not easy for him to judge the situation soberly,” Panarin said at the time via Sports Illustrated. “He has a lot of people who influence his decisions. But if everyone walks around you for 20 years and tells you what a great guy you are and how good a job you do, you will never see your mistakes.”
Panarin’s post comes just days before the planned protests against Navalny’s detention.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.