The Belarusian athlete of Christina Timanovskaya declared readiness to help all athletes who decide to leave the country. With such words, she spoke at a press conference in Warsaw, which was broadcast on Youtube.
According to her, in Belarus, criticism towards the authorities is punishable by the restriction of freedom, and today there are dangerous people with a opposition political position. Including this concerns the athletes who are huge pressure not only in terms of sports victories, but also in loyalty to the regime of the head of state Alexander Lukashenko.
In this regard, the decision on emigration, the athlete considers, is quite natural. “If someone from athletes at the moment decides to leave Belarus, then we will not leave them alone, we will definitely help everyone,” said Timanovskaya. She added that she hoped to return once to their homeland, but only if she had nothing to threaten there.
Previously, the former presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya said that the situation with Timanovskaya proved the fact of pressure on the Belarusian athletes from Lukashenko’s regime. She added that each Belarusian risks becoming a hostage if he decided to openly talk about the real state of affairs in the country.
Timanovskaya flew to Warsaw on August 4th. Before that, the athlete was in the diplomatic representation of Poland for several days and received a visa of this country.
On August 1, the National Olympic Committee of Belarus excluded the athlete of Christina Timanovskaya from the national team at the Olympics in Tokyo. The reason for its emotional psychological state was indicated. The opposition fund of sports solidarity stated that the athlete tried to take out forcibly from Tokyo. A few days before, Timanovskaya criticized Belarusian sports officials.