Pavel Pogrebnyak has been fined 250,000 rubles (£2,938/$3880) by the Russian Football Union (RFU) after suggesting black players should not represent Russia.
Pogrebnyak, who played for both Fulham and Reading during a three-year stay in England, gave an interview earlier this month to a local publication in which he questioned why Brazil-born striker Ari had been given a Russian passport.
Ari – a former Brazil Under-20 international – has spent much of his senior career in Russian football, having joined Spartak Moscow in 2010 from Eredivisie side AZ, while he has also represented Lokomotiv Moscow and Krasnodar.