Olympics-Sprinter ‘Safe’ In Austria After Refusing To Return To Belarus

[Gunny]

August 4, 2021
By Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich
TOKYO/VIENNA (Reuters) -Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya was safe in Vienna on Wednesday, Austrian officials said, after she flew in from Tokyo under Polish diplomatic protection three days since refusing her team’s order to go home early from the Olympics.
The apparent Cold War-style defection of an athlete has been one of the major stories of the Games and could further isolate Belarus, which is under Western sanctions after President Alexander Lukashenko’s crackdown on opponents since last year.
After spending two nights in Poland’s embassy, the 24-year-old sprinter walked onto a plane at Tokyo’s Narita airport wearing wearing jeans, a blue blouse and sunglasses with “I RUN CLEAN” written on them.
“She is safe and is doing well under the circumstances,” Magnus Brunner, Austria’s deputy environment minister, told reporters after her Austrian Airlines flight touched down in Vienna. “She is naturally worried and excited and nervous about what will happen next for her.”
Tsimanouskaya was expected to travel on to Poland, which has granted her a humanitarian visa and another to her husband to join her.
The sprinter caused a furore on Sunday when she said coaches had demanded she pack her bags at the Olympic village and taken her to the airport against her wishes, ordering her home because she had criticised them. She refused to board the flight and sought protection of Japanese police.
“I will not return to Belarus,” she told Reuters at the time.
The Belarus National Olympic Committee (NOC) did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. Previously, it said coaches had decided to withdraw Tsimanouskaya from the Games on doctors’ advice about her “emotional, psychological state”.
She was initially due to fly directly to Warsaw on Wednesday, but a Polish government source said she was switched at the last minute to the Vienna flight after news of her itinerary became public. Concern was high because of an incident in May, when a Ryanair flight was forced to land in Belarus and a dissident journalist arrested, the Polish source said.
BELARUS STAYS QUIET
A Belarus interior ministry spokesman could not be reached for comment about Tsimanouskaya’s security. Belarus government officials have said little so far publicly about her case.
The affair has played out amid increased concern for the safety of Lukashenko’s critics, including in neighbouring countries, following a crackdown that has seen tens of thousands of arrests inside Belarus.
Vitaly Shishov, a Belarusian activist living in Ukraine, was found hanged in a park near his home in Kyiv early on Tuesday. Ukrainian police have launched a murder investigation, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy ordered a review into the safety of Belarus exiles.
Sport plays a high profile role in Belarusian politics under Lukashenko, a hockey player and cross country skier known to compete in televised races in which his opponents fall before crossing the finish line. Lukashenko personally headed the Belarus Olympic committee until he was replaced by his son this year. His website quotes him as saying “Sport is our ideology”.
The International Olympic Committee has started an investigation into Tsimanouskaya’s case and said on Wednesday it had received a report from the Belarusian team.
“The IOC is opening a disciplinary commission to establish the facts in this case and to hear the two officials – Artur Shumak and Yuri Moisevich – who had been allegedly involved in this incident,” said IOC spokesman Mark Adams.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has accused Lukashenko’s government of “transnational repression” in the matter.
Police have cracked down on dissent in Belarus following a wave of protests triggered by an election last year which the opposition says was rigged to keep Lukashenko in power.
Belarusian authorities have characterised anti-government protesters as criminals or violent revolutionaries backed by the West, and described the actions of their own law enforcement agencies as appropriate and necessary.
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Antoni Slodkowski in Tokyo, Alan Charlish in Warsaw, Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich and Ayhan Uyanik in ViennaAdditional reporting by Karolos Grohmann, Parniyan Zemaryalai, Akira Tomoshige, Angie Teo, Pak Yiu, Douglas BusvineWriting by William Mallard and Peter GraffEditing by Leela de Kretser and Andrew Cawthorne)
https://www.oann.com/olympics-belarus-sprinter-tsimanouskaya-leaves-polish-embassy-in-tokyo-2/

More high drama at the Olympics. A Soviet defector in 2021. Who'd have ever thunk THAT?

[Gunny]

August 5, 2021
By Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber
WARSAW (Reuters) – Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya decided to defect as she was being driven to a Tokyo airport because her grandmother told her that it was not safe to return home to Belarus.
In an exclusive interview with Reuters in Warsaw on Thursday, she said her family feared she would be sent to a psychiatric ward if she went back to Belarus, and that her grandmother had called her to tell her not to return.
“I have always been far from politics, I didn’t sign any letters or go to any protests, I didn’t say anything against the Belarusian government,” she said.
“I’m a sportsperson and I didn’t understand anything in political life. I try not to do anything other than a sport in my life and I try my best to not be distracted by politics.”
“It may sound cruel because of all the terrible things that happened in Belarus last summer but I was trying to keep away from it, but all I have wanted is to go to the Olympics and do my best,” she said, referring to protests last year against President Alexander Lukashenko that led to a police crackdown.
“I wanted to be in the final and compete for medals.”
Lukashenko’s spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment after Tsimanouskaya’s interview.
The 24-year-old athlete caused a furore on Sunday when she said coaches angry at her criticism had ordered her to fly home from Tokyo. After seeking protection from Japanese police, she flew on Wednesday to Poland instead of Belarus.
Poland, which has long been critical of Lukashenko’s authoritarian rule and harboured many activists from Belarus, has granted Tsimanouskaya and her husband humanitarian visas. Her grandmother remains back home.
“Grandmother called me when they were already driving me to the airport,” the athlete said. “Literally, I had some 10 seconds. She called me, all that she told me was: ‘Please do not come back to Belarus, it’s not safe’.”
“That’s it, she hung up,” she said. “I would want to return to Belarus. I love my country. I did not betray it and I hope I will be able to return.”
‘I AM NOT AFRAID’
Tsimanouskaya’s saga, reminiscent of Cold War sporting defections, threatens to further isolate Lukashenko, who is under Western sanctions after a crackdown on opponents since last year.
The sprinter, who had criticised negligence by her team coaches, spent two nights in Poland’s embassy in Japan before flying to Vienna and then Warsaw on Wednesday. She also held a news conference in the Polish capital on Thursday.
The Belarus National Olympic Committee had said coaches withdrew Tsimanouskaya from the Games on doctors’ advice about her emotional and psychological state. It did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment on Thursday.
Tsimanouskaya said she had told her coach on Sunday that she was ready to run in the 200 metres, but he then went to make a call.
“And in couple of hours the head coach came to me with the team representative and they said there was a decision made to send me home, we are not the ones who made the decision, we are only executing it. You have 40 minutes. You have to pack your things and go to the airport,” she said.
The decision, she said, came from “high up”.
At the airport in Tokyo, the coaches were taken by surprise, the athlete said.
“They did not expect that in the airport I can approach the police. They think that we are scared to make a move, that we are afraid to speak, afraid to tell the truth to the whole world. But I am not afraid,” she said.
“I am not of those people who are scared. I am always staying for truth. I respect myself. I respect my work. And I also want other people to respect themselves, to respect their work and stop being afraid and start speaking openly about what worries them.”
Before going to Tokyo, Tsimanouskaya was not among the few Belarusian Olympians who publicly voiced support for the opposition to Lukashenko.
Opposition figures have been prosecuted, jailed or fled since mass protests against Lukashenko began last year, even before he won a sixth presidential term in an election that observers and critics say was rigged. He denies electoral fraud.
Sports play a high profile role in Belarusian politics under Lukashenko, who headed the Belarus Olympic committee until he was replaced by his son this year.
The International Olympic Committee has started an investigation into Tsimanouskaya’s case and said it would hear from the two Belarusian officials allegedly involved.
“This is a very turbulent period of my life. But I hope it will soon be over. That I can continue my career,” Tsimanouskaya said. “And I also think that I really want to help people like myself. If they have any kind of pressure on them, I am ready to help them.”
(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber and Tom Balfmorth, Additional reporting by Maria Vasilyeva, Tatyana Gomozova and Angelina Kazakova in Moscow, Writing by Timothy Heritage; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Angus MacSwan)
https://www.oann.com/exclusive-belarusian-sprinter-decided-to-defect-on-way-to-airport-on-family-fears-about-safety/

Waiting for the hitmen in dark trench coats to appear. Maybe they'll poison her like they did that guy in the UK (forgot his name).

[Juicer66]

https://www.oann.com/exclusive-belarusian-sprinter-decided-to-defect-on-way-to-airport-on-family-fears-about-safety/

Waiting for the hitmen in dark trench coats to appear. Maybe they'll poison her like they did that guy in the UK (forgot his name).


Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia . The double agent who allegedly was poisoned by the most deadly existing nerve agent Novichok which kills in

under 5 seconds .Yet he had it smeared all over his hands but with a few' hiccups' shrugged off the inconvenience . Ditto his daughter .


And Belarus was in no way involved in that piece of theatre . Sergei hailed from Kalingrad which is a Russian enclave on the Baltic Sea but part of the

Federation . Nice place .

[Gunny]

Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia . The double agent who allegedly was poisoned by the most deadly existing nerve agent Novichok which kills in

under 5 seconds .Yet he had it smeared all over his hands but with a few' hiccups' shrugged off the inconvenience . Ditto his daughter .


And Belarus was in no way involved in that piece of theatre . Sergei hailed from Kalingrad which is a Russian enclave on the Baltic Sea but part of the

Federation . Nice place .

Cold War commies are Cold War commies. Their methods are so cliche they are considered comedy, waxing over their deadly intent. It's as if they watch James Bond and Our Man Flint, tongue in cheek spy melodramas for tips on how to conduct clandestine operations.

[Juicer66]

Cold War commies are Cold War commies. Their methods are so cliche they are considered comedy, waxing over their deadly intent. It's as if they watch James Bond and Our Man Flint, tongue in cheek spy melodramas for tips on how to conduct clandestine operations.


The only problem with that cliche view is that facts strongly suggest that it was a US initiated False Flag with our Intelligence Agencies being more than

willing participants --- obliged under Five Eyes Agreement protocols.( It's not really a suggestion but I am tactfully not offering it as a guaranteed

certainty . Which it is , imho )

Too long , complex and detailed for this chat site .

You would need to be aware of Skripal's full background and his relationship to Steele , the ex MI6 agent , who was essentially responsible for the fake

Dossier commissioned by the DNC and used so hopelessly as source material for impeachment of a certain Mr D Trump .Assisted of course by Sergei

and his MI6 neighbour in Salisbury who recruited him as a double agent -- in Estonia from memory .


There is the story that was pumped out by the Legacy Media and then there is the version that actually happened .


I can appreciate Compliance Gullibles buying the Fake version . Life is far too short to worry about the truth if something simple seems to be sufficient !!

What is the point of running a False Flag if you don't get the Sheeple to buy it ?

[Gunny]

The only problem with that cliche view is that facts strongly suggest that it was a US initiated False Flag with our Intelligence Agencies being more than

willing participants --- obliged under Five Eyes Agreement protocols.( It's not really a suggestion but I am tactfully not offering it as a guaranteed

certainty . Which it is , imho )

Too long , complex and detailed for this chat site .

You would need to be aware of Skripal's full background and his relationship to Steele , the ex MI6 agent , who was essentially responsible for the fake

Dossier commissioned by the DNC and used so hopelessly as source material for impeachment of a certain Mr D Trump .Assisted of course by Sergei

and his MI6 neighbour in Salisbury who recruited him as a double agent -- in Estonia from memory .


There is the story that was pumped out by the Legacy Media and then there is the version that actually happened .


I can appreciate Compliance Gullibles buying the Fake version . Life is far too short to worry about the truth if something simple seems to be sufficient !!

What is the point of running a False Flag if you don't get the Sheeple to buy it ?
Guess I'm not as appreciative of "gullibles" as you :rolleyes:

[Juicer66]

Guess I'm not as appreciative of "gullibles" as you :rolleyes:



Absolutely right .

This Chat site is full of them . But for me it is more a case of tolerance whilst further studying the Derangement Syndrome in all its wonderful shapes

and sizes -- which with americans tend to be very large , rofl .


BMI over 40. As I feel sure you know .