MINSK, 11 February (BelTA) - Belarus will not tolerate the fact that political tools have become the norm in the world of sports, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said as he addressed the 6th Belarusian People's Congress in Minsk on 11 February, BelTA has learned.
The Belarusian leader emphasized that sport is the foundation of the nation's health. All conditions are being created in the country to make various kinds of sports available to the population. According to him, 30 standard sport centers with swimming pools will be built in the regions in the near future.
“As for professional sport, we have seen that it has not just become politics,” said Aleksandr Lukashenko and admitted that it is difficult even to find a suitable term to describe sport today. “Today the global powers use it any way they want. The civilizational value of sport has always depended only on a fair result,” added the president.
The things that are taking place in world sport show the opposite: medals are first given, then taken away, countries are divided into ‘right' and ‘wrong'. “They determine who gets to compete and who does not. Political tools such as sanctions, blockades, investigations have become the norm in the world of sport. This is contrary to our mentality and internal culture,” said Aleksandr Lukashenko.
Belarus will not tolerate this, but it is very difficult to resist such phenomena, the head of state added.
