The leader of the Belarusian opposition, a former presidential candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya discussed with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia Edgars Rinkevichs the transfer of the Ice Hockey World Championship from Minsk. This was reported on Tikhanovskaya’s Telegram channel.
“Most countries do not want to participate in Lukashenko’s political show. While there are more than 160 political prisoners in Belarus and thousands are in jail, there can be no question of any sports event. We have met our partners’ full understanding in this,” Tikhanovskaya said. / p>
She noted that if the event is not rescheduled, then many teams will boycott the championship. According to her, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin, Director of the Danish Hockey Union Ulrik Larsen, Vice-President of the International Ice Hockey Federation and others have already come out for the postponement or boycott.
Earlier, the Secretary General of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Horst Lichtner responded to calls to deprive Belarus of the right to host the World Championship. According to the functionary, the federation is out of politics, so it will not make political decisions. At the same time, he added that the tournament will not be held in a country where a revolution is taking place and chaos reigns, but if Belarus returns to a “normal lifestyle”, the World Cup will definitely take place there.