On May 29, 2026, the International Ice Hockey Federation said Russia’s participation in hockey tournaments for the 2026-27 season will be decided on an event-by-event basis, leaving open the possibility of continued restrictions even after earlier legal and administrative changes inside the federation.

The announcement matters because Russia has been barred from IIHF-run competitions since its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. That exclusion has extended to Russian players in the NHL and prevented them from taking part in the Milan Cortina Olympics. The latest statement does not restore Russia automatically. Instead, the federation said each competition will be assessed separately.

The IIHF’s position follows a January decision that had barred Russian teams, including at the youth level, but that move was later annulled after an appeal from the Russian Ice Hockey Federation. The federation’s disciplinary board made clear that the annulment did not mean Russia had been fully reintegrated. In other words, the legal challenge changed the shape of the ban without ending it.

The federation has already moved differently on Belarus. Earlier in the same week, the IIHF said Belarus would be brought back into under-18 men’s and women’s events and the women’s Division IV world championship beginning that year. Belarus had also been excluded because of its support for Russia in the war. The council said those decisions were taken only after assessments and consultations and described the return as a controlled and responsible step.

That contrast is important. It shows the IIHF is not treating all suspended federations in the same way, even though both cases are tied to the war in Ukraine. Belarus is being phased back into some age-group and lower-tier events, while Russia remains under a more uncertain review process.

The wording of the IIHF statement suggests the federation is trying to preserve flexibility rather than commit to a definitive political line. Event-by-event review allows it to account for safety, logistics, diplomatic pressure and the views of member federations before each competition. It also leaves Russia in a prolonged holding pattern, unable to plan on a simple yes-or-no answer for the next season.

For Russian hockey, that uncertainty is the point. A blanket return would have changed the landscape immediately. A case-by-case system does not. It leaves open the possibility that Russia could be approved for one tournament and blocked from another, depending on how the IIHF weighs each situation.

For the wider hockey world, the announcement keeps one of the sport’s most politically sensitive issues unresolved. The IIHF has already signaled that it wants to reconnect parts of the international hockey family where it believes that can be done safely. But with Russia, the federation is still holding the line through a process of repeated review rather than a return to normal competition.