The government of the United States, along with other companies and individuals, has also imposed sanctions on the Belarusian Olympic Committee in order to cut its financial leeway.
As the Treasury Department in Washington announced on Monday, the former kickboxer Dmitri Schakuta was also sanctioned for his alleged involvement in the attack on the opposition member Roman Bondarenko on November 11, 2020 in Minsk, as was the Gym Shock in Minsk run by Schakuta.
Christoph Becker
Sports editor.
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American President Joe Biden said on Monday, on the anniversary of Belarus’s 2020 presidential election, which culminated in the brutal repression of the democracy movement, the actions of Alexandr Lukashenko’s regime were “an unlawful attempt to stay in power at any cost. A year ago today, the Belarusian people tried to make themselves heard and to shape their own future through the most basic expression of democracy - an election ”.
As the Ministry of Finance announced in relation to the sanctions against the NOK, whose leadership Lukashenko has entrusted to his son Viktor, it can be assumed that it serves the ruler to circumvent sanctions and to launder money. "Lukashenko sees himself as an athlete and a godfather of sport, who uses international competitions as a gain in prestige for his regime and potentially also as a vehicle for financial crimes," the ministry said.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC), which has excluded the Lukashenkos from all Olympic activities and does not recognize the handover to Viktor Lukashenko as head of the NOK, stopped providing financial support to the organization after ongoing protests by athletes who had joined the opposition . A final result of the investigation by the IOC against the NOK because of the role in dealing with the sprinter Kristina Timanowskaja, who has meanwhile traveled to Poland and who accuses the NOK of attempting kidnapping on the instructions of the Belarusian government, is still pending.