This is crazy stuff.
On Monday morning, Larry Brooks of the New York Post reported that Rangers star winger, and former Blackhawk, Artemi Panarin would be taking a leave of absence from the team. This comes following a story being published in Russia that alleges Panarin physically assaulted an 18-year-old woman in 2011.
Breaking news: Panarin is taking a leave of absence from NYR in aftermath of political hit piece against him from Russia alleging that he beat up an 18-year-old girl in Russia in 2011.
— Larry Brooks (@NYP_Brooksie) February 22, 2021
On its own, this news is jarring. A player in the prime of his career, and a legitimate star in the NHL, removing himself from the team in light of this story out of Russia looks like a really bad sign. But then, consider this is coming from a pro-Putin Russian publication with “information” from pro-Putin sources. Panarin has been outspoken against Russian President Vladimir Putin for a few years now, most recently posting on Instagram in support of Alexi Navalny, a jailed political rival of Putin.
Retribution was feared after Panarin's Instagram post on 1/21 in support of opposition leader Alexi Navalny with caption "Freedom for Navalny." Panarin, who has family in Russia, has been outspoken against Putin.
— Larry Brooks (@NYP_Brooksie) February 22, 2021
The New York Rangers released this statement following the news on Monday morning:
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) February 22, 2021
If you’d like to read the Russian article in question, you can find it below. I’d suggest Google translate, unless you are fluent in reading Russian, which I am not.
Get your translators ready …
Here is the article about Panarin's alleged attack on a female. (About half way down)https://t.co/OhDU7o3los— Here's Your Replay ⬇️ (@HeresYourReplay) February 22, 2021
From Isabelle Khurshudyan, a former Washington Capitals reporter and now a Russian correspondent for the Washington Post, there could be more to the story than any of us know yet.
This is kind of odd. Panarin has been critical of Kremlin, but while this story made some headlines here in Russia today, it also didn’t seem like it was getting so much attention as to pressure him to take a leave in NY. There could be more to it, too. https://t.co/KdsylUhrY3
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) February 22, 2021
Hopefully this is able to be resolved in a best case scenario. While we can’t know exactly what happened or what is true or not, the overarching theme we are seeing, for now, is that this is a politically-driven “hit piece” by the Russian media.
UPDATE: Aivis Kalniņš, a European and KHL hockey reporter, says that after reaching out to many involved in the story, there are no reports of the incident involving Panarin ever occurring.
Hotel spokesperson as well as multiple other sources have told me that no such incident has occurred. One person who I spoke to answered with “No, absolutely not. If you look at what Nazarov said and do a little research you’d instantly see through his lies” https://t.co/2wXPs5lGB0
— Aivis Kalniņš (@aiviskalnins) February 22, 2021
We’ll keep up as more unfolds.