Wednesday 4th August 2021
Escape from Lukashenko’s regime
Timanowskaya landed in Warsaw
After a short stopover in Vienna, Kristina Timanowskaja arrives in Poland. The sprinter turns her back on her home country Belarus permanently because she fears repression there. She is now waiting for her husband in Warsaw.
The Belarusian athlete Kristina Timanowskaja has arrived in Warsaw after a transfer stop in Vienna. The plane of the state airline LOT landed at the international Chopin airport of the Polish capital in the evening.
The 24-year-old received a humanitarian visa in Poland. According to her own statements, after a conflict with sports officials at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, she was supposed to be brought back to her home country against her will, which is ruled by President Alexander Lukashenko in an authoritarian manner.
In Warsaw there should be a reunion between Timanovskaya and her husband, Arseni Sdanewitsch, soon. According to a government spokesman, Poland also issued him a humanitarian visa. Sdanevitsch had fled Belarus and was last in Ukraine. Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz said it was up to Timanowskaja to decide whether she wanted to stay in Poland: “In a democracy, people decide for themselves about their future.”
The 24-year-old sprinter had changed her travel plans at the last minute. She had not flown directly from Tokyo to Poland, but via neutral Austria. Security reasons were presumed to be the reason for the measure. The IOC has meanwhile set up a disciplinary commission to clarify the Olympic scandal surrounding the sprinter.
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