The girls no longer compete in the beauty pageant sponsored by Lukashenko: it only remains to guess what awaits them.

The requirements for the candidates for the most beautiful women in the country are quite strict. Girls must be at least 24 years old, single and have no children. Do not have tattoos or body piercings, height: not less than 174 cm.

And this year another important condition appeared: loyalty to the government, writes currenttime.tv.

More about the contest “Belarus Belarus 2021” became clear from an interview with the head of the Directorate of Special Projects of the ONT State Project, one of the organizers of the contest Jelena Lobach. He said the girls are being scrutinized very carefully right now. To avoid surprises, the organizers even view their stories on Instagram.

The final of the competition, which will take place on September 10. In Minsk, the leitmotif will be the past, present and future of the country. “We will also reveal the image of the true Belarusians through the image of Belarus,” Lobach told the country’s media. “Not those who live with impulsive emotions and stand in protest, holding in their hands posters classified as obscene.”

Regional breakdowns and selection under the supervision of “siloviks”

Independent media began writing about the Miss Belarus 2021 competition in the spring, at the regional selection stage. The reason is the record number of participants. In Brest, for example, a girl came to the national team. For comparison, last year about 20 applicants participated in the same contest.

In Grodno, the selection was generally conducted behind closed doors, with militia officers at the entrance. 23 girls came to the selection. The organizers did not allow journalists from non-state media to enter the room and prohibited them from communicating with the contestants. Prior to that, the selection in the city took place in 2018. Then 80 girls attended, 30 of whom advanced to the next round.

In response to what is happening, Belarusian officials have traditionally used administrative resources. In late April, Telegram posted a photo of a Minsk District Administration document on the Belye Chalaty channel. The document indicates that the National School of Beauty is urgently looking for participants in the “Miss Belarus” beauty contest.

Each district has to send five girls who meet certain parameters to the capital.

Anna Mirončik, a public relations specialist, believes that the selection of girls from the regions will not help the organizers to restore respect for the previously popular competition.

According to her, the participation of many ambitious girls in the Miss Belarus competition was the hope of a quick start. However, after the events of August, it became irrelevant: participating in a government-sponsored project now would amount to damaging your reputation. Many do not want to take risks.

“It’s like a reverse version of the King Mead story, which is why Miss Belarus, like Dažynki, the Slavianskij bazaar, has gone from being an interesting national event to a competition for those who don’t fit anywhere else. Where will the queues be selected here … ”- summed up the specialist.

From the miss to the Lukashenko Protocol Office

It would not be entirely accurate to say that the “Miss Belarus” protest contest was not politicized until last year.

“Aliaksandr Lukashenko is always present in practically all the finals of the competition,” said Julia Mickiewicz, director of Femgruppa on Telegram. “Later, the girls who won the contest were, as I say more subtly here, in their environment and even went up the career ladder.”

Femgruppa, which was created to promote gender equality, called for a boycott of the Miss Belarus competition. A report by Belarusian feminists claims that beauty pageants are in principle a humiliating event and, in the situation in Belarus, this is becoming an expression of widespread state violence.

“It’s very difficult for me to imagine how difficult it can be for girls to turn down an offer to go with him (with Lukashenko) somewhere,” Mickiewicz said. – We do not know all the details of what awaits these girls and in what conditions they are in the environment of that person. All that remains is to guess. “

A joint study by the Russian publication Projekt and the Belsat television channel shows that former participants in beauty contests often become employees of the Presidential Protocol Service. These are the girls who accompany Lukashenko to public events.

For example, in 2019. In the summer of 2006, Lukashenko collected watermelons at his summer home at the Selected Beauties Society. Among his entourage, journalists noted the winner of the student contest “Queen Spring 2013” Darja Šmanai. Since 2014 he often appeared in public with Lukashenko.

Another former president of the Belarusian presidency is Maria Vasilyevich. 2018 became the winner of a national beauty pageant; the president attended the announcement of the winner. Since then, the girl has often been seen in presidential society, as well as at the World Cup in Russia three years ago. According to Lukashenko’s spokeswoman, Natalia Eismont, she personally prepared the girl for the Miss World competition, where she won the title of “Miss Europe”.

2019 Vasilyevich became the youngest member of the Belarusian parliament, although he had no political experience. The British newspaper The Times later wrote that Vasilyevich probably has a romantic relationship with Lukashenko.

The girl, in response to such rumors, claimed that it was a lie.

At the beginning of the protests, Vasilyevich visited the affected protesters at the Minsk Ambulance Hospital. According to the parliamentarian, she apologized for the injuries suffered.

But very quickly his situation changed, reports currenttime.tv. Vasilyevich is now working in the field of legislation, and laws are being drafted on the deprivation of Belarusian citizenship for terrorist activities, extremism and serious damage to the interests of the state. Such accusations are made against the participants of the protest actions in Belarus.

“Healthy Miss Belarus”

It is true that not all the great beauties of Belarus support the regime.

2008 Olga Chizhkovov, the winner of the contest, is called “Miss Belarus of a healthy man” on the Internet and one of the most important protesters in Belarus. She was detained for 42 days for participating in peaceful demonstrations, a record period of detention at the time.

O. Chižinkova was arrested on November 8 last year. During the “March of People’s Power” campaign in Minsk. Even before the arrest, Miss Belarus 2008 spoke out against the Lukashenko regime. Due to her civic position, she was fired from the National School of Beauty in September.

The girl believes that, given the difficult economic and political situation in the country, the very fact that a beauty pageant is being held this year is astonishing. In an interview with tut.by, she said that the title of “Miss Belarus” is currently more of a decorative nature: one can only expect work in the protocol service of A. Luakshenko, state television or the national beauty school.

“In general, current realities threaten the reputation of the participants,” says O. Chižinkova. “The big Belarusian brands will make their face a model with a neutral biography instead of a contestant in the Miss Belarus competition.”

O. Chižinkova herself has been cooperating with the Belarusian brand Conte for 10 years (until 2018). While the woman was arrested, she began to hide her face in the products under the price tags in the state stores. The brand itself did not express its support for its eternal ambassador.