US hits Belarusians with visa bans for repression

WASHINGTON: The US State Department said Thursday said it placed visa bans on “multiple” Belarusians for attacks on dissidents, including a runner who the government tried to forcibly repatriate from the Tokyo Olympics last year.

The department did not identify the individuals blacklisted or give a precise number, but said they had been involved in “serious, extraterritorial counter dissident activity” on behalf of the regime of strongman Alexander Lukashenko.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken singled out for praise the Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation for “efforts to support and protect the human rights of athletes amid the Lukashenko regime’s violent crackdown and ongoing repression of Belarusians inside and outside the country.”

Last August during the Tokyo Olympics Belarus officials allegedly tried to force sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya to leave Japan early and return home, after she criticized the country’s athletics federation.

She sought protection with Olympics officials and then defected to Poland. She is one of a number of Belarusian athletes who have fled the country’s repressive environment under Lukashenko.

BSSF was founded last August by exiled Belarusian swimmer Aliaksandra Herasimenia, and provides financial and legal assistance to athletes targeted by the authorities.

Since Lukashenko claimed victory in a 2020 election that the opposition said was rigged in his favor, dozens of professional athletes and coaches have been dismissed from national teams and several have been jailed.