In an interview on the YouTube channel of sports journalist and commentator Nobel Arustamyan, former Russian national team and Zenit St. Petersburg striker Alexander Kerzhakov spoke about the reasons why he left the country.
According to him, the situation forced him to leave Russia, but he stressed that it is not about emigration. Kerzhakov explained that at some point he wanted to be away from his country and go somewhere warm.
"Not to run away, not to disassociate himself from his homeland, but just to leave in a given period of time and be somewhere far away," the athlete said.
He did not explain what exactly he was unhappy with in today's Russia, but only stated that he and his wife were having a very hard time and they simply could not believe what was happening.