Lukashenko staged a long-watched performance – hello, dear!

01/12/2021 Lithuania, Sports, World



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“Hello dear!” – January 11. Lukashenko said, hugging Rene Fasel tightly.

When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out a year ago, this behavior is a real rarity, according to Radio Free Europe / Radio Freedom. The two men, without protective masks, chatted amiably and shook hands for a few seconds before moving on to the most important part of the meeting.

2021 Belarus is expected to co-host the World Hockey Championship with Latvia in May and June, but Riga and many other European Union (EU) capitals are calling on the TLRF to revoke Minsk’s right to host the championship for brutal treatment protesters and members of the political opposition.

Mr. Faselis has just arrived in Minsk to discuss this issue. The final decision should be made on January 25 and 26. at the next TLRF meeting.

Lukashenko has faced endless protests since the controversial presidential election on August 9 last year. Opposition members say the results were falsified and that Lukashenko unfairly won his sixth term. The EU and the United States (US) have refused to recognize Lukashenko as a legitimately re-elected president and have imposed sanctions on Belarus for his brutal treatment of protesters.

Losing the right to host the hockey championship would be a serious blow to A. Lukashenko, a passionate hockey player, who often plays himself.

Opposition leader Sviatlana Cichanouskaya, who spent several months in Lithuania after receiving threats from Belarusian security officials, wrote on Twitter that “near the place where the president and the TLRF leader met warmly,” residents are being detained. in inhumane conditions as political prisoners.

He added that although Swiss Fasell had embraced Lukashenko, “Natalie Hersche, a Swiss-Belarusian citizen, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for participating in peaceful protests in Belarus.”

High pressure

Belarusian journalist Hanna Liubakova wrote a similar message: “More than 30 thousand. detained. Security officers shot and beat several people to death.
There are 169 political prisoners. And the president of the International Hockey Federation, René Fasel, was warmly received … in Minsk. “

Mr. Lukashenko told Mr. Faseli that Belarus was ready to organize the championship with or without Latvia. The president said that if Riga surrendered, “we would have the best world championship in Belarus.”

The Belarusian leader also assured Fasel that Minsk would guarantee the safety of the event and that there would be no danger in terms of “coronavirus, political security or physical security.”

“I agree with what he said recently: sport should unite nations, not divide them, and sport should avoid politics as much as possible,” Lukashenko said.

For his part, Fasel said only that he was “happy” to be in Minsk and “to have the opportunity to discuss the situation.” He admitted that the TLRF had “received considerable pressure on the issue.”

Poor naivety

Lithuania’s former Minister of National Defense and Foreign Affairs, Linas Linkevičius, wrote on Twitter that “there is no difference between sport and politics in a dictatorship.”

“The naivety of some sports bureaucrats is simply deplorable,” he added.

Former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Rebecca Harms commented on the social network that the meeting between Mr. Fasel and Mr. Lukashenko was “another example of the shamelessness of international sports organizations.”

German MEP Viola von Cramon rejected the argument that “sport is incompatible with politics” and wrote: “And is sport compatible with honesty, human self-esteem, morality and other principles to which its supposedly adheres? organization?”

He added a reference to an open letter to Mr Fasel in December, signed by 51 MEPs. He called on the TLRF to “adhere to its principles, do not justify cruelty and make sure that the 2021 Hockey World Championship is not held in Lukashenko’s Belarus and does not move to Russia, which is the only country that recognizes Lukashenko “.

The letter ends with a sports metaphor: “Hockey is on your side of the field.”

44,000 people signed an electronic petition requesting a change of country for the championship. people.

Russian analyst Jens Siegert, who lives in Russia, noted that Lukashenko had told Fasel that “no one in Belarus occupies government buildings”, apparently alluding to the January 6 assault on the Capitol in the United States when the building was invaded by the aggressive President Don. Proponents of the short.

“Absolutely true,” J. Siegert wrote on Twitter. – After all, the opposition is only protesting peacefully. People don’t carry weapons. Protesters are arrested solely for waving or flying flags. “

Another analyst, Janis Kluge, added: “Lukashenko has already completely ‘occupied’ the Belarusian parliament.”

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