(Washington) The US State Department announced in a statement on Thursday “to impose visa restrictions” on several nationals of Belarus for “their involvement in serious activities to suppress dissent abroad”, citing in particular the case of the athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya.
Posted at 9:20 p.m.
The sprinter had been threatened with being forcibly repatriated to Belarus during the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, after criticizing her country’s sports authorities.
“We stand in solidarity with M.me Tsimanouskaya and all who have experienced the regime’s attempts to silence critics,” the State Department statement said, which did not specify the identities of those targeted by the sanctions.
The re-election of Alexander Lukashenko as President of Belarus in August 2020 sparked a historic protest movement in this former Soviet republic, violently repressed by the authorities, who carried out mass arrests, liquidations of media and NGO.
“The United States reaffirms its support for the people of Belarus, and once again calls on the Lukashenko regime to end the crackdown on members of civil society, independent media, political opposition, athletes, students, legal professionals, and other Belarusians,” the State Department said.
Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, a specialist in the 100 and 200m, said in August 2021 that she had escaped forced repatriation to Belarus, a few days after openly criticizing her country’s Athletics Federation which had registered her for the 4x400m relay of the Olympics. from Tokyo without prior notice.
Fearing that she would end up in prison if she returned to Belarus, she had obtained help from the International Olympic Committee and police protection while she was at Tokyo-Haneda airport.
Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, 24, then took refuge for two nights at the Polish embassy in the Japanese capital, before joining Poland, a country which granted her a humanitarian visa.