Alexander Lukashenko has created the atmosphere of "witch hunt" in Belarus. He humiliates, persecutes and is ready to betray anyone. Others are prepared to betray him too.
The act of betrayal committed by 24-year-old Belarusian athlete Kristina Timanovskaya at the Tokyo Olympics started when she posted a message on Instagram criticizing the leadership of the Belarusian delegation for their decision to make her run a 400-meter relay race without her knowledge (Timanovskaya specializes in 100 and 200 meter sprint races).
"It turns out that our '"great" chiefs have decided everything for us, as usual. They messed with the girls who did not have enough tests to fly to their first-ever Olympics, so they decided to make a knight's move and put me into the relay. That was great, guys! Well done!" Timanovskaya wrote on her Instagram page (the post was later deleted).
The "great" chiefs have responded. They decided to bring Timanovskaya home from Tokyo to Belarus due to "emotional and psychological problems." Indeed, members of the Belarusian Olympic delegation have showed the worst side of them.
Timanovskaya later explained her behavior:
"I would have never reacted so if they had approached me in advance to explain the whole situation and find out whether I could run 400 meters, whether I was ready. They decided to do everything behind my back, even though I tried to find out this information, but was ignored in return. Believe me, even though I have never ran 400 meters, I would be ready to support the team and the girls to go on the same track with them. Yet, I believe that executives should have respect for us as athletes and reckon with our opinions sometimes!"
As a result, the plane, on which Timanovskaya was supposed to return to Belarus, took off from Japan without her. The athlete announced that she would never return to Belarus. The Czech Republic offered the Belarusian athlete a visa. Alexander Opeikin of the Belarusian Sports Solidarity Fund said that Kristina Timanovskaya applied for political asylum in Poland.
Alexander Nosovich, a political scientist and international journalist at Rubaltil.ru, told Pravda.Ru that the media and propaganda campaign that was launched against Timanovskaya came as a consequence of a number of mistakes committed by Belarusian officials. They put Belarus in jeopardy, the specialist believes.
International press will see it as an act to persecute Timanovskaya, and everyone will hold President Lukashenko accountable for that, because it is Lukashenko who makes all decisions in Belarus, the expert said.
It is worthy of note that Lukashenko was rude in his congratulations to bronze medalist in trampoline jumping Maxim Nedosekov.
"You were the first Belarusian high jumper who managed to climb onto the Olympic pedestal, thus opening a new page in the history of national athletics. As a real athlete and patriot, you have convincingly proved that one needs to believe in themselves and fight for the honor of the flag to the end, and success will come," Lukashenko said in his congratulatory message.
Lukashenko addressed the Belarusian athlete on first-name terms and attached a political meaning to his message. All in all, it was not a nice message to read.
Moreover, Lukashenko believes that Belarusian athletes need to be hungry to win Olympic medals.
"Look at those African countries. Those countries are in ruins, but why such high results? Because they know: if they win the Olympics, the World Championships, then they will have everything. If they do not win, they will have to ramble somewhere, looking for a piece of bread. And we support everyone," Lukashenko stated on Thursday, July 29.
The level of idiocy in Belarus has been getting stronger. Pro-government journalist Grigory Azaryonok spoke about singer Angelica Agurbash and other Belarusians who dared to stand up against Alexander Lukashenko. At the end of the report, a song was played:
"Punish them, Lord, punish them:
All who have broken away from the people,
All who betrayed the Truth and the Freedom,
Who got mired in corruption and lies, —
Punish them, Lord, punish them,
Put conscience in sinful souls!"
Needless to say that one can only feel disgusted to live and work in a country that has such a leader.
According to Alexander Nosovich, the political life in Belarus has been reduced to the search for the fifth column and traitors. Lukashenko has raised many of them — they are his former proteges who made their careers during his rule. These are people like Viktor Tsepkalo, the former director of the Hi-Tech Park, and Pavel Latushko, the former Minister of Culture.
"Lukashenko has raised them with his own hands, and he also developed and nurtured many ideological trends in Belarus that were in opposition to him, but at the same time they were in opposition to Russia,” the expert told Pravda. Ru.
The West will try to turn Timanovskaya into a political figure, a new banner of opposition, because Svetlana Tikhanovskaya looks "very unconvincing" in this capacity.
"Potential opposition candidates inside Belarus are in jail. Potential candidates for political immigration did not show anything special. As long as EU countries already offer political asylum to the athlete one after another, they already harbour plans to make the Belarusian athlete become a new symbol of confrontation to Belarus President Lukashenko. Whether they succeed or not depends on the athlete herself," Alexander Nosovich told Pravda.Ru.