THEY'RE STILL HERE

 

Belarus has been in the news again with an Olympic athlete refusing to be sent home and, instead, seeking asylum in Japan. The Olympic Committee  unsurprisingly didn't help and nether did Japan but Poland stepped up. See: BELARUS ATHLETE SPRINTS TO POLAND

 Krystsina Tsimanouskaya alleged that her team’s officials tried to force her to fly home, where she feared she wouldn’t be safe from an autocratic government that recently was accused of diverting a plane in order to arrest a dissident journalist. Tsimanouskaya feared for her safety once she saw the campaign against her in state media and decided to jump when she could.*

Belarus clamps down on anyone who disagrees with the government especially since the rigged presidential election a year ago triggered mass protests. The president and his cronies have arrested many of their critics and use stern measures to suppress dissent.

"The parliament of the republic proclaimed the sovereignty of Belarus on 27 July 1990, and during the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Belarus declared independence on 25 August 1991. Following the adoption of a new constitution in 1994, Alexander Lukashenko was elected Belarus's first president in the country's first and only free election post-independence, serving as president ever since. Lukashenko's government is authoritarian with a poor human rights record due to widespread human rights abuses. Belarus is the only country in Europe officially using the death penalty. Lukashenko has continued a number of Soviet-era policies, such as state ownership of large sections of the economy. "

           - Wikipedia 

Lukashenko is a piece of work disguising his Stalin-type authoritarianism as democracy. Belarus is a corrupt state with a corrupt president and government yet ironically, Lukashenko campaigned on an anti-corruption platform. He's not the brightest candle in the candelabra though as this quote of his attests:

"Belarus stood on the edge of an abyss, and I helped her take a step forward."

* To be clear Tsimanoskaya is a runner not a jumper.