Dozens of athletes — officers of the Belarusian armed forces and secret service personnel of the Lukashenko regime — may attend the Olympic Games in Paris
Theses by Pavel Latushka, deputy head of the United Transitional Cabinet, head of the National Anti-Crisis Management for the panel discussion "Dissident athletes in international sports competitions — how athletes who challenged non-democratic regimes can represent their country".
2nd European Congress of Sport and Tourism, Zakopane, 27 September 2023
1. Belarusian society is very different from Russian society. In Belarus — the majority is against Lukashenko and against the war in Ukraine. In Russia — the majority is in favour of Putin and for the war in Ukraine.
2. At the same time, Russia has not even seen the scale of repressions, in which Belarusians have been living for the 3rd year already.
3. And here I would like to point out that behind this NO, the athlete meets double discrimination.
4. On the one hand, such a dissident athlete is discriminated against by the regime itself — he is excluded from national teams, dismissed, included in blacklists for work (now a particularly sensational case with such lists in football), imprisoned.
5. On the other hand, an athlete is excluded from international sport by the international federation itself. Depending on the specifics of the sport, the federation excludes the dissident athlete either because he is a citizen of Belarus or because the national federation does not include him in the participation lists.
6. On the other hand, an athlete is excluded from international sport by the international federation itself. Depending on the specifics of the sport, the federation excludes the dissident athlete either because he is a citizen of Belarus or because the national federation does not include him in the participation lists.
7. Based on either the passport feature or the representation of the national federation
8. What we are talking about here. It is about the fact that some international federations apply an absolute ban on the participation of athletes from Belarus.
9. Others, on the contrary, allow, ATTENTION, on lists from the national federations of Belarus, athletes from Belarus, but under the neutral or official flag of Belarus (for example, combat sports) to competitions.
10. In such a situation, it turns out that a Belarusian dissident athlete is not protected in any way. He is outside the system of his national sport and, as a result, outside the system of international sport.
When trying to protect the interests of such an athlete, we, as his representatives, often receive refusals from international federations to consider our requests for the athlete's participation, because we, ATTENTION, are not representatives of the national federation.
11. Hence, it follows that the requests of the national federation, for example, of kickboxing and Muay Thai of Belarus, which is headed by the notorious Karayev, are subject to consideration by the international federation. But the requests of representatives of democratic forces, as well as the dissident athlete himself, are not.
Recall that Karayev, being the Minister of Internal Affairs, was included in the sanctions of the EU and the United States for the quote "ongoing campaign of repression and intimidation in 2020, in particular illegal arrests and ill-treatment, including torture of peaceful protesters, as well as intimidation and use of force against journalists»
12. And here the Kickboxing Federation is not an isolated case, where a person from military structures or a person recognised as Lukashenko's wallet is in a leading position. For example, we can recall the Federation of mini-football of Belarus, which is headed by Khomenko Siarhei, the so-called major-general, who is now the Minister of Justice and liquidates the remaining representatives of civil society in Belarus, for example, now it is in the liquidation of the NGO Children of Chernobyl. Earlier still as Deputy Minister of Interior Khomenko was placed on the EU sanctions list for a quote "ongoing campaign of repression and intimidation in 2020, in particular illegal arrests and ill-treatment, including torture".
One can cite the example of Alexei Aleksin, included in the US and EU sanctions as Lukashenko's purse strings. Aleksin is a member of the board of trustees of the Charitable Tennis Development Fund, initiated by former head of the Belarusian Tennis Federation Alexander Shakutin. At the same time, Shakutin is also under EU sanctions as Lukashenko's purse.
13. At the same time, in 2020, the IOC established that a Belarusian athlete can be admitted to international starts regardless of the national federation, if his sporting achievement corresponds to the level of competition. But this admission system never worked.
What we are suggesting,
to apply the experience of Poland in admitting athletes from Belarus and Russia, namely to admit an athlete who has a clearly expressed civil anti-war position; who has no funding from the Belarusian/Russian authorities or affiliated persons; who has a neutral status (ban on the use of state symbols)
add the criterion of no affiliation with military structures, which is set by the IOC. We have compiled a list that already includes more than 150 athletes and functionaries affiliated with militaria. The list will be passed on to both the IOC and the federations. However, we are concerned about a certain passivity of the IOC and federations in checking athletes for their affiliation with security agencies. This may lead to the fact that a delegation of athletes-officers of the Belarusian security services, for example, in the number of 10/20 people, will come to Paris for the Olympics.
to allow admission of Belarusian dissident athletes to international starts directly (without an application from the national federation), on the basis of the sporting principle
14. The said system makes it impossible for athletes who maintain the regime to participate and at the same time allows for the restoration of the rights of dissident athletes to participate in starts.
15. The said system makes it impossible for athletes who maintain the regime to participate and at the same time allows for the restoration of the rights of dissident athletes to participate in starts.
16. In addition, we believe it is important to pay attention to:
initiation of the IOC procedure to suspend the recognition of the NOC of Belarus in the context of ongoing repression and war crimes of Lukashenko, using national sports institutions, functionaries and athletes-propagandists in this process
using the mechanism of restrictive measures/sanction visa policy to prevent propagandist athletes, militarised athletes from travelling to democratic countries.
Using the mechanism of restrictive measures against national federations.
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