Connection to politics? No. I think ChiHawks10 was just poking fun of the bias of some people.
Connection to other leagues? Certainly. Read the OP.
Ah, OK.....I went off the thread title (no mention of other Leagues/politics) and almost all of the posts I read (taking issue with the "dominating in the NHL" phrase and not mentioning other Leagues/politics)
I first noticed there were top players in/from "other Leagues" when I first started following hockey in the 1970s.....I myself see two different biases: those biased enough to suggest talent only comes from and/or exists in NA and those that have a need to suggest a significant number of people think that talent only comes from and/or exists in NA; IMO the latter is claimed far more than the former...I actually rarely see the former actually stated, but regularly see the latter posted
Having now read the OP, IMO the KHL is not full of players like Panarin and Radulov regardless if you label them as potentially good/great NHLers or "dominating" NHLers (IMO the discussion about two players doesn't "prove" much or indicate any significant change in how the KHL is looked at by the NHL compared to recent years/decades...
top players from Russia's top League have been coming to NA for a quarter century, it's not a new phenomenon)