Photo: twitter.com/edgarsrinkevics
BCHB flag in Riga
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The mayor will remove the flags of the International Ice Hockey Federation faster than the white-red-white flag.
The mayor of Riga Martins Stakis refused, at the request of the President of the International Ice Hockey Federation Rene Fasel, to return the state flag of Belarus instead of the white-red-white. He posted his response to Fasel on Facebook on Tuesday, May 25.
As you know, the Ice Hockey World Championship is being held in Latvia the day before. BCHB-flag was hung in Riga instead of the official flag of Belarus. After that Minsk expelled all Latvian diplomats. Riga answered mirrored.
“The flags of Belarus are present in Riga – these are the white-red-white flags of free Belarus. The Ice Hockey World Championship is primarily a celebration of athletes, hockey fans, residents of Riga and Latvia. But we must not forget that a few hundred kilometers from the main hockey hall arenas hijack an EU plane, torture and kill people. This is done by a regime that behaves in a bandit manner both locally and internationally, “the mayor of Riga writes.
He explained why, in this case, sport cannot be outside of politics.
“Sport should be out of politics, but let’s not deceive ourselves, this is not the case. In Belarus, world-class athletes were arrested, persecuted and deported, while international sports officials were often silent. In this situation, be silent and pretend that nothing happens, but just enjoying hockey is unacceptable for me. I love hockey, but sport should not be used to cover up crimes, “Stakis said.
He added that the IIHF president demands that the official flags of Belarus be raised in Riga again, otherwise he insists on removing the IIHF flags.
“Everyone must choose a side – a people thirsting for freedom or a bloody dictator. I made my choice and we will remove the IIHF flags from the public space in Riga,” Stakis said.
Meanwhile, the Vilnius municipality hung out on the square near the city hall of the capital of Lithuania the historical flag of Belarus in support of the Belarusian opposition and protest against the forced landing on May 23 at the airport of Minsk of the Ryanair liner.
“This is the attitude of the city and the mayor of the city to the events in Belarus, when the plane made a forced landing, and, in principle, a“ terrorist attack ”was carried out,” Karolis Vaitkevicius, a spokesman for the mayor’s public relations, told BNS.
According to him, the Lithuanian capital expressed solidarity with Riga.
Recall Belarus got into a scandal with an emergency landing of a Ryanair passenger plane, which was heading from Athens to Vilnius. After the landing of the liner, Roman Protasevich, the founder of the NEXTA Telegram channel, recognized as extremist in the republic, was detained.
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