Football Legend Nikita Simonian Included in Ukrainian Blacklist

Football legend and Moscow "Spartak"'s all-time leading scorer Nikita Simonian has been included in the database of the Ukrainian extremist website "Mirotvorets." The first vice-president of the Russian Football Union, Simonian, along with other well-known Russians, is accused of "violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine." Earlier, the database had also included Archbishop Yeghishe of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Russia and New Nakhichevan, triple Olympic champion in skiing Aleksandr Bolshunov, football player Artem Dzyuba, European figure skating champion Mark Kondratyuk, and fencer Sofia Velikaya.

Nikita Simonian is 98 years old and is the all-time top scorer in the history of Moscow "Spartak" with 160 goals. He played for the club from 1949 to 1959. In addition, Simonian served as the head coach of Spartak from 1960-1965 and 1967-1972. In 1956, he became an Olympic champion as part of the USSR national team. Under Simonian's leadership, Yerevan's "Ararat" became the champion and cup holder of the USSR.