Former national soccer player Igor Denisov is one of the few Russian athletes to have condemned the war in Ukraine. “I’m against people dying,” said the midfielder. At the beginning of the war he did not sleep and even addressed a video message to Russian President Putin.
Former national soccer player Igor Denisov was one of the few Russian athletes to speak out against the aggressive war in Ukraine. It was a shock and a horror when he found out about the invasion in February. That’s what the 38-year-old ex-captain of the national team said in an interview with sports blogger Nobel Arustamian published on Wednesday. “I’m against people dying,” said the midfielder, who was also a four-time Russian champion.
“I don’t know, maybe I’ll be imprisoned or killed for saying those words, but I’ll tell it like it is. My perception of everything has changed drastically. I have not slept. I probably slept three hours for four days. I was just shocked,” said the footballer about his impressions since the beginning of the war.
At the beginning of the war he even recorded a video message to President Vladimir Putin asking him to stop the war. “I’m ready to get on my knees before you,” he said. But Russian media did not want to publish the message, Denisov said without further details.
The Russian population is partly to blame for the war, “because we don’t manage to convey our point of view to the government,” he said. The midfielder was temporarily captain of the national team, the Sbornaja, under coach Fabio Capello after 2012. Most recently, Denisov played for Lokomotiv Moscow and ended his career in 2019.
