Mikalai Khalezin: “We will struggle to cancel ice hockey world championship in Minsk”

Initiators of the campaign to move the ice hockey world championship from Minsk are not going to surrender.

“We expected such a turn of events. It was not a surprise. We know a position of Rene Fasel and know he is ready to deal with any regime. At the same time, the IIHF politicizes this championship and lead it to the boiling point. We are not going to stop. The campaign will work wider. We will criticize not only the dictator, but also his partners, also in financial issues. No surprise. We continue our activity. Work of hockey players is to play, but our work is to struggle against dictatorship. If hockey players want to play with the dictatorship, they turn sport into a political circus,” Belarus Free Theatre, Mikalai Khalezin, told in an interview for charter97.org.

Launched after the presidential elections by Free Belarus Now civil campaign and the Belarus Free Theatre, the campaign was supported by parliaments and world's leading politicians, human rights defenders, public figures and sportsmen.