‘The New Belarus Should Be Without Liars And Lukashists’

Free athletes met with Belarusians in Sopot.

A volleyball tournament and a meeting with Belarusians took place as part of the Baltic Summer Camp, which free athletes have been holding in Sopot, Poland for refugee children for the second year in a row.

The meeting was attended by three-time Olympic medalist in swimming Aliaksandra Herasimenya, world and European champion in sambo Stsiapan Papou, former general manager of the national hockey team Sviataslau Kisialiou. Editor-in-Chief of the Charter97.org website Natallia Radzina attended the meeting as an honorary guest.

The discussion turned out to be very lively. Instead of the hour and a half planned by the organizers, the conversation lasted for three hours.

Aliaksandra Herasimenya told Charter97.org that Belarusians want to be useful for the country even beyond its borders:

— I wanted some kind of chamber conversation. The people were sincere, there were no provocateurs or conflict situations. Everyone tried to hear each other. Everyone, in general, shared the same opinion that today people who want real action, and not just receive grants, need to unite, develop in their fields, in order to be useful in Belarus later.

Of course, everyone was concerned about what could be done today. Create some organizations? Maybe. But will they be effective? There were many questions that remained unanswered, questions for reflection. Much was said about how to preserve our country. Belarusians understand that we must not forget about culture, our language.

We, athletes, understand that such camps, volleyball tournaments, and sports events need to be organized for our children, so that children are in the Belarusian community. For now in Poland, but they should not forget that they are Belarusians.

It is not necessary to be in Belarus to make our country better. You can help financially, with the connections that you already have. And also with the experience that we have gained abroad.

Another topic of the meeting with free athletes, as Aliaksandra Herasimenya said, was the Olympics in Paris:

— We talked a lot about the fact that there is no justice even in such large structures as the International Olympic Committee. Athletes who showed themselves during the protests in 2020 did not have the opportunity to compete in the Olympics (even those who qualified were not allowed). But those athletes who are in Belarus (and some of them even support the regime), for some reason had such an opportunity. Here is the question: where is this justice that the IOC talks about? There are many painful issues that concern athletes and organizations that work not for people, but for their own interests.

I can say that Belarusians want to do something, and we understand that we need to unite at least at some points, under some projects and ideas. It is not necessary to be a single structure, it is important to have common goals.

Editor-in-Chief of the Charter97.org website Natallia Radzina, sharing her impressions of the meeting, highlighted the personal feat of free athletes:

— People were extremely interested. It was noticeable that Belarusians had accumulated a large number of questions to which they were looking for answers.

Mainly — when will we return home. There is a strong desire to return to our homeland. A desire to make our own efforts so that changes in our country occur as soon as possible.

I was amazed by our free athletes, with whom we spoke at this meeting. After all, today they are in the same position as hundreds of thousands of other Belarusian political emigrants.

You need to understand how dependent athletes are on the state. Representatives of other professions can become independent: a doctor can start a private practice, a teacher can give private lessons, a journalist must be independent. But an athlete, if they fall out of the state system, cannot participate in competitions, as the Olympics that are currently underway have shown. Therefore, the feat that our athletes accomplished in 2020, it seems to me, has not yet been appreciated enough. After all, it was a strong and risky step for these people.

Now, four years later, which were very difficult for our athletes (after all, they also needed to find jobs, look for opportunities to earn money, many of them conduct private training), despite the difficulties, at the meeting, Aliaksandra Herasimenya, Stsiapan Papou, Sviataslau Kisialiou said that they do not regret at all what they did, because today they live in harmony with their conscience and could not act differently in that situation, not to side with the Belarusian people.

The meeting itself inspired me. After all, it showed what wonderful and beautiful people we have. These years have not been easy for all of us, but the changes and metamorphoses that are happening to us in these difficult times, I am sure, are only for the better.

World and European Sambo Champion Stsiapan Papou told Charter97.org that we need to prepare for the new Belarus today:

— Belarusians have figured out what Lukashenka is, his system, relations with Russia, they have realized that Russia is our enemy. Today, Belarusians must also figure out what is being created instead of Lukashenka. What we stand for, what we expect, where we are going, what we can do.

Many people do not understand what is happening in all the “cabinets” and “offices”. Many childishly wait for “someone to do everything for them”. No, if we do not have influence, we will not do anything. Therefore, we need to talk to people so that they are educated, see what democracy is. So that when we have the opportunity to influence the processes in Belarus, as it was in 2020, there will be many of us. Today, we need to draw conclusions from past events.

Because when we have democracy tomorrow, we will have to be ready not to elect a “second Lukashenka”. To do this, we need to prepare so that people understand how this system was created, so that in the first elections we do not vote for populists, liars and Lukashists who say that they are “democrats”. We must be a strong civil society today.

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