Ukrainian footballer Oleksandr Aliyev playing for Anzhi Makhachkala in 2014. Photo: Dmitry Sadovnikov
Russia’s financial watchdog Rosfinmonitoring added former Ukrainian international footballer Oleksandr Aliyev to the government’s list of “terrorists and extremists” on Saturday, following comments he made on the Armed Forces of Ukraine’s (AFU) incursion into Russia’s southwestern Kursk region in August.
Russia’s Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against Aliyev at the end of August for making “public calls to terrorism” in a video on his Instagram page in which he called on AFU soldiers in the Kursk region to “kill civilians like they [Russia] are doing with our women, our innocent children” following Russian air strikes on cities across Ukraine.
In an interview with Ukrainian sports website Zbirna, Aliyev called Russia’s case against him “complete nonsense” and said he “couldn’t care less” about the charges when Russia was “killing our innocent women and children and committing acts of terrorism all over our innocent country”.
Born in the city of Khabarovsk in Russia’s Far East, Aliyev lived with his family in Kursk for several years before moving to Ukraine in 1999 to join the academy of Dynamo Kyiv, where he would go on to spend the bulk of his career.
He also spent a season each at Russian clubs Lokomotiv Moscow and Anzhi Makhachkala and made 28 appearances for the Ukrainian national team between 2008 and 2012.
Shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Aliyev enlisted to join Kyiv’s Territorial Defence Force.
While Russian media reported in August that Aliyev’s parents still lived in the Kursk region, his father told Russian state-owned propaganda broadcaster RT that they had not been in contact with him since spring 2022.
