The Belarusian flags flying during the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) World Championship in Riga have been replaced by versions used by the opposition movement in the country, prompting criticism from the IIHF.
The Belarusian flag has been flying in the Latvian capital along with those of other nations playing in the ongoing Men’s World Championship.
According to the Latvian news agency LETA, the flags were replaced by Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkēvičs and Riga Mayor Mārtiņš Staķis.
The move followed the decision of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to «hijack» a plane to arrest a journalist.
The official flags were changed to the white-red-white flag that was used before the current flag of the country was introduced.
This has become a symbol of the opposition movement protesting Lukashenko’s leadership.
Staķis said on Twitter that the flags «symbolizing the regime that participates in state terrorism should not be hung.»
⬜🟥⬜Starp hokeja čempionāta karogiem paceļam brīvās Baltkrievijas karogu, kuru man uzticēja baltkrievu politiskie bēgļi! Rīgā nedrīkst plīvot karogi, kas simbolizē režīmu, kurš nodarbojas ar valsts terorismu – tos esam noņēmuši. #BrīvībuBaltkrievijai #FreeBelarus #ЖывеБеларусь pic.twitter.com/BgVOFtXNFX— Mārtiņš Staķis (@MStakis) May 24, 2021
Rinkēvičs added his support to the people of Belarus, which borders Lativa.
«This is unacceptable to us,» IIHF president René Fasel said, according to Russia’s state-run TASS news agency.
«We will not change flags in the stadiums and we will ask that the World Championship and IIHF flags be removed from those positions where the flags were changed in Riga.»
In response to the flag change, the Belarusian Ice Hockey Federation (FHB) sent a letter to Fasel.
Fasel, in turn, sent a letter to Stakis, criticizing the decision.
Stakis responded, however, saying: «We have to take sides: a people fighting for freedom or a dictator.»
He added that the city would remove the IIHF flags.
«The FHB has already sent an official note to IIHF President René Fasel, the World Championship Organizing Committee in Riga and the leadership of the Latvian Ice Hockey Federation,» said FHB President Dmitry Baskov.
Baskov said the flag replacement «is nothing more than an attempt to politicize the world hockey forum in Riga and directly contradicts the sporting nature of the championship.»
Late last night Belarusian pro-state channels released this video statement by the abducted Lukashenko critic Roman Protasevich, who says he’s being held at a Minsk jail and confessing to “organizing mass unrest” last summer. He looks shaken & roughed up. pic.twitter.com/A45xKl56VQ— Matthew Luxmoore (@mjluxmoore) May 25, 2021
He was a co-founder of the Nexta channel, which has been used to coordinate protests against the Lukashenko regime.
Lukasenko’s re-election as Belarusian president in August is widely seen as manipulation, and the government violently cracked down on the resulting protests.
Belarusian officials claimed that the Ryanair flight was diverted due to a bomb threat.
The country was supposed to co-host the World Championship with Latvia, but was stripped of its duties due to security concerns.
After the last row, the president of the Latvian Ice Hockey Federation, Aigars Kalvitis, has refused to exclude Belarus from the rest of the tournament.
The Riga City Council has also replaced Russian flags throughout the city with versions from the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), for the duration of the event.
Although not mandatory, the Riga City Council said the change was «more appropriate to the general mood,» citing that the ROC is the team that represents Russia in the competition.
Russia cannot compete under the Russian flag or have its national anthem played, as part of the doping sanctions implemented by the Court of Arbitration for Sport that will expire in December 2022.
