European Central: Poland Grants Humanitarian Visa to Belarusian Olympic Runner
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Belarussian President Lukashenko has created another potentially strong female critic of his regime. This time it is Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, a Belarussian sprinter who attended the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Her crime was daring to criticize the regime for entering her in the 4 x 400-meter relay without notifying her. She was also upset as she is a sprinter and does not train to run 400 meters. She qualified to run the 100-meter and 200-meter events in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. As a result of her criticism, Belarussian officials brought her to Haneda airport in order to send her home.
In the airport, Tsimanouskaya was able to tell Japanese police about her situation by writing a note saying that she was being forced out of the country. She used her phone to assist in translating her message for the police to understand. Belarusian officials were suspicious, but she pretended she forgot an item at the Olympic village and was trying to retrieve it. She felt she finally was safe when the police separated her from the Belarusian officials.
When Lukashenko was asked about Tismanouskaya, he claims that she was manipulated in order to behave in such a manner. It seems implausible that she was manipulated at any stage and instead she behaved as she did because of the actions of Belarusian officials first trying to make her run a distance she does not train for and then trying to deport her from Japan back to Belarus.
This seems to be backed up by Tsimanouskaya who stated she was apolitical before the Olympics in order to avoid her husband or parents facing backlash from the government if she spoke out against the regime. Her parents agreed that she and her husband should move to Poland after being offered humanitarian visas to avoid punishment in Belarus. As can be seen from previous critics of the Belarusian government or people who try to run for President against Lukashenko, these people often are imprisoned and can face torture. Besides being able to continue her running career, Tsimanouskaya should be able to safely criticize the government as well in Poland. In order to reach Poland and not suffer a similar fate to Roman Protasevish, Tsimanouskaya changed her flight plans and first flew to Vienna before flying to Poland. This made it difficult for Belarusian officials to try to track her.
Having the ability to support fellow Belarusian athletes appears to be a priority for her as Taimanouskaya tried to auction a silver medal she won in 2019 on eBay. She wanted to use the money in order to help athletes financially who have been punished for speaking out against the regime. Unfortunately, all bids were canceled by eBay, and Tsimanouskaya will work with her and allow her to auction the medal on the website.
She is in good spirits in Poland and aims to continue her career as a runner. Fortunately, her husband made it to Poland as well and also received a humanitarian visa from the Polish government. Unfortunately, their cat and dog are still currently in Belarus due to her husband having to rush out of the country in order for the government not to notice his departure. Tsimanouskaya also hopes to continue the efforts she and her husband have made in creating an online training program they already started working on in Belarus.
It is important to note that Belarus is furious about countries helping Belarusians and continues to use migration as a weapon against other countries. Lithuania issued 500 humanitarian visas in the past year. The European Union is witnessing weaponized migration from several neighboring nations. Apart from Belarus, Morocco and Turkey have also used migration as a bargaining tool with the European Union. Looking at the situation in Belarus, the majority of migrants crossing into Eu nations originate from Iraq. Migrants have been making their way from Iraq to Belarus by flying via flights from Iraqi Airways to Minsk. This will no longer be possible due to the flights being suspended since August 10th as a result if the European Union pressuring Iraq to stop the flow of migrants to Belarus. It is not certain how this may impact migration as Pakistan is currently working on a visa-free travel agreement now with Pakistan. As there are many countries worse off than European Union nations, there is a long list of countries Belarus could incentivize migration from in order to attempt to punish the European Union and not all of these countries may be easily pressured to stop flights to Belarus.
While Lukashenko's strategy to continue his presidency past the twenty-seven years he has already served is through attempting to crush political opponents, this no longer works. As countries such as Poland and Lithuania continue to help critics of the Belarusian government move safely out of Belarus with humanitarian visas, these critics have successfully gained the attention of the world to the lack of political freedoms in Belarus.
