Belarusians and Zuckerberg Defeat Fasel

The spontaneous campaign was as elegant and witty as the posters on the Belarusian marches.

Unfortunately, we did not manage to sweep the opponents. We tried to sweep back in 2014, but we lost. Then, Minsk hosted the Ice Hockey World Championship. It will not take place again as long as Lukashenka is in power.

Last time, no Belarusians were killed. They were imprisoned, tortured, threatened. However, the scale was not as great as now. When the latest wave of repression started after the 2010 election, Belarusian politicians and human rights activists fought for three years to keep the Ice Hockey World Championship away from Belarus until Lukashenka freed all political prisoners. The European Parliament and the U.S. Congress also filed formal appeals to the International Ice Hockey Federation demanding to move the championship if political prisoners were not released.

Then, the championship happened.

Lukashenka thanked Rene Fasel, the head of the International Ice Hockey Federation, for not giving in to the pressure of the whole world. Fasel gave Lukashenka a puck and repeated that sport was out of politics. It was the universal maxim he had been advocating for several years. In response, Lukashenka happily assured him that the Ice Hockey World Championship would be a momentous political event.

He was telling the truth. Belarus introduced visa-free entry for anyone who bought tickets to at least one match. However, human rights activists who tried to come with tickets were turned away at the airport with comments from the border service: "He doesn't like hockey, he doesn't like our country." One said it about |Martin Uggla of Sweden's Östgruppen, for example. The filters worked properly. Minsk was cleaned up for the time of the championship like Moscow did in 1980. Since the championship lasted 15 days, all the opposition members, who were still at large, were taken to the infamous Okrestina prison for 20-25 days to make sure the championship had passed by the time of their release. Back then, the practice of the additional time to the administrative arrest without release was not yet widespread. Thus, the administrative arrest was extensive. After the championship, those who spent it behind bars called themselves the "Okrestina team."

Whereas in 2014 the Okrestina team consisted of hundreds of Belarusians, today it has tens of thousands.

This team includes those who have already gone to prison to serve criminal rather than administrative sentences. There are also casualties: Raman Bandarenka, Aliaksandr Taraikouski, Aliaksandr Vikhar and Henadz Shutau. Still, there are true champions in this team. For example, the basketball player Yelena Leuchanka is the finalist of NBA women and the best center of the World Championship 2010.

After serving 15 days in jail on Okrestina, Yelena Leuchanka wrote a letter to Rene Fasel: "Your decision will indicate whether the hockey world represented by you supports violence and genocide, not whether Minsk co-hosts the planned games. The pandemic has demonstrated no sports can exist without fans. It doesn't make sense without the people in the stands. Fans are active citizens of any society. Everyone has a passport, and every adult can vote. So one can't just remove people from sports and say we're out of politics. Both you as an official and me as an athlete don't exist without fans." Yelena wrote about the confinement conditions; how she met Swiss citizen Natallia Hersche (Fasel's compatriot), who was sentenced to two and a half years in jail for ripping off the mask from the chastener in plain clothes. He forced her into a police van. Her letter ends with the words: "Let us respect you as a human being.

Rene Fasel responded to Yelena Leuchanka. He wrote he was ready to listen to her proposals for the World Championship. He was open to discussions but offered to withdraw political issues from the discussion of the championship. He expressed hope that Minsk would host an "apolitical championship." That was his typical reply to Belarusians, Europeans, and Americans. This wording has remained unchanged since 2014. Meanwhile, the Belarusians have changed.

First, it became clear that it was no use to appeal to sports officials like Fasel. After all, they do not care. It was no use to appeal to politicians either because they can only appeal, not interfere. So we had to act on our own. Therefore, the sponsors, not the hockey federation or the international political structures, became the target of those appeals. Now one doesn't have to look for the address of the headquarters, run to the post office and send a letter. One doesn't even need to look up the company's e-mail address on its website. The bloodless and effective tag has become the weapon of Belarusians.

Tens of thousands of Facebook users either sent messages to the official pages of the companies sponsoring the Ice Hockey World Championship or simply tagged them ("Dear Nivea, will you disappoint your consumers throughout the world...?").

Belarusians living abroad joined them and engaged their new friends and acquaintances there. The geography of the tags expanded to at least the size of Europe, maximum - the northern hemisphere. It was no longer letters or e-mails, but posts on social networks, for everyone to see, with all of their likes and reposts. The spontaneous campaign turned out to be as graceful and witty as the posters at the Belarusian marches.

Skoda and Nivea were the first to withdraw their sponsorship of the championship. The next day, Tissot and Liqui Moly did the same. If there are no sponsors, there is no championship. This simple formula worked like a sniper rifle. The most accurate hit, which cannot be compared to any appeals or political resolutions. The decision on relocation was made two days after the companies' ultimatums.

By the way, Belarusians remember yesterday's tags. They started tagging the companies that refused to sponsor the Minsk championship with even greater enthusiasm. The most popular post on Saturday: "I haven't got enough money to buy Skoda, but I've already bought Nivea". Skoda owners laughed at those who were foolishly proud of a Mercedes they had once bought.

The Okrestina team, which won the period, continues to fight for victory.

Iryna Khalip, Novaya Gazeta