After the interception of a Ryanair plane in Belarus on Sunday and the subsequent detention of two of its passengers, the opposition journalist and his girlfriend, on Monday at the Radisson Blu Hotel Latvija in Riga, where the flags of the member states of the World Hockey Championship were displayed, the official flag of Belarus was replaced with the historic white-red-white flag. Both the Mayor of Riga Mārtiņš Staķis and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Edgars Rinkēvičs took part in the action, as a result of which Latvian diplomats were expelled from Belarus. Latvia did the same thing.
This means that de facto diplomatic relations between the two countries are at least frozen, if not completely severed. There is also an opinion that this act of support of Belarusian civil society may complicate cooperation with the neighboring country for businesses.
Meanwhile, the leader of the opposition party Harmony (Saskaņa) Jānis Urbanovičs, conveying the general opinion of Harmony, says: "We believe that the actions of the Foreign Minister violate the line that separates sports from politics, it is aimed at increasing his popularity and not defending Latvia's interests."
The president of the International Ice Hockey Federation René Fasel has also gotten involved in the incident, as he demanded that Riga place the red-green flags of Belarus back, but if this is not done, the flag of the federation must be removed in places where the white-red-whites billow. The Mayor of Riga has not complied with the request of the president of the federation. The red-green flag has not returned to the streets of Riga, and so the federation flag has also been removed from them.
Rihards Kols, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Saeima, believes that Riga has acted in accordance with the principles defended by democratically elected powers, and no one has the right to tell such a city how to live.
How do you assess what the Mayor of Riga and the Minister of Foreign Affairs did?
It is a very symbolic gesture of solidarity with Belarusian civil society, especially in the light of the events since Sunday. In addition, they are not flags related to the official places of the championship, they are decorations in the city of Riga.
Unlike the Lukashenko regime, the Riga City Council is democratically elected and you can't tell a democratic city which flags they are allowed to place.
It seems that the expression of Riga's attitude has hit a vulnerable point for the tyrant, because the reaction is absolutely absurd - the expulsion of diplomats.
Also, the reaction from René Fasel, President of the International Ice Hockey Federation. He publicly says that we agreed to move the entire championship to Latvia, and that has been solidarity on the part of Fasel. But this is a half-truth, the decision to move the championship to Latvia and deprive Belarus of the right to organize it was related to the sponsors of the federation, who one after another gave signals that they would refuse to give funding if the championship took place in Belarus.
An interesting fact is that, if I'm not mistaken, Fasel is considering working for the Russian Hockey Federation after the end of his term. That also shows something about his moral standards and principles.
Although this has happened more than once in recent history, it is often said that sport should not be associated with politics. Where is the line, when athletes also have to reckon with the consequences of the policies pursued by their country's leaders?
If you live in an authoritarian regime, this is a natural thing. Athletes, like entrepreneurs, have to take into account that their international activities may be affected due to the regime that exists in their country.
This is the harsh reality athletes must face. It is necessary to understand what kind of regime it is, and not only in Belarus, but also in Russia with its doping policy. Not all Russian athletes are doping users, but they still cannot participate under their national flag.
In this situation, when Belarus is carrying out a state-sponsored act of terrorism and invoking this slogan, it would be wrong to live as if nothing had happened, because it would not be in line with the values we proclaim - the rule of law, democracy, freedom.
To what extent is the white-red-white flag considered to be the real flag of Belarus, if the officially recognized symbol of Belarus around the world is the one that was removed by our Foreign Minister?
I have not closely looked at the issue of heraldry, but white-red-white has historically been the flag of Belarus. When Lukashenko took office that was the flag that flew next to him. It was only with the start of the Lukashenko regime that a referendum on the flag was held. We can now judge how transparent this referendum was, which decided to change the flag to green-red.
Fasel has said that he cannot accept that the flag of the Belarusian opposition is flying next to the flag of the International Ice Hockey Federation. But that is not the case. When we talk about Belarus, we are talking about its civil society. We are seeing civil society take to the streets every Sunday since August last year. It cannot be just called the opposition, it is civil society in general, they are not supporters of one or the other opposition leader. They want freedom in Belarus, starting with free and democratic elections.
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