Hockey Turns Out Proper Mess For Lukashenka

Sports is just a mirror reflection of what is happening in the country.

Coordinator of the European Belarus civil campaign Andrei Sharenda said this to Charter97.org, commenting upon the scandalous failure of the Belarus national ice hockey team at the world championship in Denmark:

- Our bosses are just talentless. The point is not about hockey. The same is happening in the economy, in health care. Hockey has become an indicator of what is going on in the country. Because the hugest money was invested in this kind of sports. The authorities built an enormous colossus with feet of clay.

I think that for Lukashenka himself the performance of the Belarusian national ice hockey team in Denmark was a shock. It is for this reason that he is in no hurry to comment on this event. For him, hockey has always been an outlet, and the performance of the team was a blow below the belt for him.

You know, I think that the dictator does not know what to do. On the one hand - he can punish, “beat” in public, but on the other - may be it would be better to hush up the affair and never recall it?

The situation with hockey is a mirror image of what is happening in the country. Whatever Lukashenka attempts to take on, everything turns out a proper mess.

They invested in agriculture - received losses, took up hockey - got this result. Take Switzerland, Latvia, France, which were not rivals for us once. Today we lose to these teams. Belarusian hockey is degrading with leaps and bounds, I would not be surprised if we are kicked out of the first division next year.