The Executive Committee of the International Biathlon Union has deprived Belarus of the right to host one of the stages of the Biathlon World Cup in the upcoming season. “The decision to postpone the event was made by the executive committee taking into account the current situation in Belarus,” the organization said..

The IBU also indicated the need to provide organizing committees, NFs and teams with the confidence to plan the competition schedule..

Thus, the eighth stage of the World Cup, which was supposed to take place in Raubichi near Minsk from March 3 to 6, 2022, was moved to the Finnish Kontiolahti. Meanwhile, the first stage of the Cup on November 26-28 was moved from Kontiolahti to Swedish Ostersund, which will also host the second stage of the competition..

In January Belarus was deprived of the right to host the Ice Hockey World Championship in 2021 with Latvia. International Ice Hockey Federation explained its decision with safety issues. Initially, the championship, scheduled for May-June of this year, was to be hosted by the capitals of Belarus and Latvia, in the end it was decided that all the matches would be held in Riga..

Since August 2020, protests have been taking place in Belarus against the results of the presidential elections, the winner of which was once again announced by the CEC to Alexander Lukashenko. Belarusians accuse the authorities of fraud and demand new, fair elections and the release of Belarusian political prisoners, as well as an end to the arbitrariness of the security forces against the protesters. Security officials repeatedly showed unprecedented cruelty during dispersal of demonstrators.

More than 30 thousand people were arrested and detained during the protests, including dozens of journalists. Hundreds of people were injured, several more died. Recently, protests have been local in nature.. The opposition formed a Coordinating Council to transfer power, but in the end, all members of the CC Presidium were either arrested or ended up abroad.. The European Union and the United States imposed sanctions against the ruler of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and his entourage.