US-born Dynamo Moscow defenseman Brennen Menell has been accepted for a Russian passport by presidential decree
Minnesota native Brennen Menell, a star defenseman for the Dynamo Moscow hockey workforce, has been granted Russian citizenship by President Vladimir Putin.
Putin issued a presidential decree on Thursday granting Menell’s request for Russian citizenship. The 26-year-old former Nationwide Hockey League (NHL) participant was traded by a Belarusian workforce to Dynamo Moscow final September and signed a three-year contract extension together with his new workforce in April.
Menell gained’t essentially must surrender his US citizenship to hold a Russian passport. US action-movie star Steven Seagal, who obtained Russian citizenship in 2016 and serves as a particular envoy for the Russian Overseas Ministry, reportedly retained his US citizenship. Others, akin to US boxing legend Roy Jones Jr., have finished the identical.
After going undrafted by the NHL, Menell starred in North America’s Western Hockey League. He then landed a contract together with his hometown NHL workforce, the Minnesota Wild, in 2017. He was an all-star defenseman for the Wild’s American Hockey League affiliate in Iowa, however he appeared in solely 5 video games with the NHL membership earlier than opting to signal with Dinamo Minsk of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) in 2020. He has thrived within the KHL, producing eight objectives and 64 assists in 102 video games.
Menell reportedly wasn’t the one North American hockey participant searching for a Russian passport. Canadian-born Brendan Leipsic, a ahead with SKA Saint Petersburg, has written a letter to Putin requesting citizenship, in accordance with a Russian media report. Leipsic misplaced his contract with the NHL’s Washington Capitals in 2020 due to “misogynistic” feedback posted on social media.
Hockey legend Viacheslav Fetisov, a former NHL star who now serves within the Duma, applauded Leipsic’s resolution to hunt Russian citizenship. “This can be a excellent pattern for Russia,” Fetisov advised sports activities information outlet Championat earlier this month. “For the political state of affairs, it’s useful for us when foreigners from the USA and Canada obtain a Russian passport of their very own free will. This implies that propaganda within the West collapses when folks come to Russia and see the reality.”
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